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EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT 


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THE    HANDBOOK    SERIES 


SELECTED  ARTICLES  ON 

EMPLOYMENT 
MANAGEMENT 


COMPILED  AND  EDITED  BY 

DANIEL  BLOOMFIELD 

Author  of  "Labor  Maintenance."  Editor  Handbook  "Employment  Man- 
agement,"    Associate     Editor    "Industrial     Relations." 
Bloomfield  and  Bloomfield,  Boston,  Consult- 
ants   IN    Employment   Management 
AND    Industrial    Relations. 

With  an  Introduction  by 

MEYER  BLOOMFIELD 

Author  of  "Labor  and  Compensation,"  "Youth,  School 

and  Vocation,"  "Management  and  Men,"   Etc. 

Editor,   "Industrial    Relations,   Bloomfield's    Labor   Digest." 


THE  H.  W.  WILSON  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CITY 

1920 


32319 


Published   June,    1919 
Reprinted   January,    1920 


H^9 

EXPLANATORY  NOTE 


The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  present  the  best  material 
available  on  the  new  subject  of  employment  management  in  the 
form  of  a  handbook  for  ready  reference. 

Those  interested  in  the  subject,  especially  students  of  employ- 
ment management  courses  in  the  colleges,  will  find  this  volume 
convenient  for  use.  They  will  no  longer  have  to  spend  the  time  in 
looking  up  scattered  material.  This  book  will  be  of  particular 
value  to  industrial  executives  who  are  interested  in  the  human 
problems  of  management. 

It  will  be  found  that  some  of  the  articles  repeat  ideas  and 
facts  contained  in  other  selections  in  this  handbook,  particularly 
in  discussions  concerning  labor  turnover.  The  editor  has  pur- 
posely refrained  from  eliminating  these  repetitions  because  of 
their  importance.  Such  repetitions  will  help  drive  home  facts 
which  otherwise  might  be  neglected. 

To  make  this  volume  of  the  greatest  practical  value  an  appen- 
dix has  been  added  containing  examples  of  typical  forms  used 
in  any  well-organized  Employment  Department. 

April  12,  1919.  Daniel  Bloomfield. 


CONTENTS 

Bibliography    xi 

Introduction  by  Meyer  Bloomfield   i 

Employment  Managers  Associations  3 

Foundations  of  Employment  Management 

Parker,  Carleton  H.    Motives  in  Economic  Life 

American    Economic    Review        5 

The  Human  Factor Engineering      25 

Lewisohn,     Sam    A.      Humanizing    the     Management     of 

Industry   28 

Aims  of  the  New  Science 

Bloomfield,  Meyer.    The  New  Profession  of  Handling  Men 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy      33 

Fitch,  John  A.    Making  the  Boss  Efficient Survey      39 

Hackett,  J.  D.     The  New  Art  of  Hiring  and  Firing  

Independent      49 

Erskine,  LiUan  and  Cleveland  T.,  Jr.    New  Men  for  Old.. 

Everybody's      52 

Problems  of  Labor  Maintenance 

Grieves,  W.  A.    The  Handling  of  Men  

Efficiency  Society  Bulletin      67 

Brasher,  Philip.     Labor  Turnover  ....American  Machinist      84 
Douglas,  Paul  H.    The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover 

American  Economic  Review      89 

Hobart,  M.  C.     The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover  

American   Machinist      99 

Radford,  G.  S.     Handling  Men   Independent     104 

The  Employment  Manager 

Bloomfield,     Meyer.      A    New      Profession    in    American 

Industry  London  Daily  News     1 13 

Jones,  Edward  D.     Employment  Management  118 


viii  CONTENTS 

Person,  Harlow  S.    University  Schools  of  Business  and  the 

Training  of  Employment  Executives  

Bulletin.     U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics     128 

Cashmore.  Hilda.  Industrial  Welfare  Work  as  a  Nev^^ 
Profession  for  Women   137 

The  Employment  Department 

Hopkins,  Ernest  M.  A  Functionalized  Employment  De- 
partment as  a  Factor  in  Industrial  Efficiency  

Annals  of  the  American  Academy    149 

Clothier,  R.  C.     Function  of  the  Employment  Department      ■'' 
Bulletin.    U.S.   Bureau  Labor  Statistics     158 

Hubbell,  N.  D.  Organization  and  Scope  of  the  Employment 
Department Bulletin.    U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics     166 

Organizing  the  Employment   Department    

Bulletin.    U.S.  Shipping  Board     183 

Gould,  E.  C.     A  Modern  Industrial  Relations  Department 

Iron   Age     193 

Forman,  B.  J.    Playing  Fair  with  the  Workers 100%     196 

The  Supply  of  Workers 

Coho,  H.  B.     Sources  of  Supply  and  Means  of  Getting  in 

Touch    with  Them     

Bulletin.     U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics     199 

Placement,  Promotion,  and  Conclusion  of  Employment 

The  Making  of  a  Trade  Test  Personnel  207 

The  Rating  Scale   213 

Scott,  Walter  Dill.     The   Scientific  Selection  of  Salesmen 

Advertising  and   Selling  127 

Gilbreth,  F.  B.,  and  L.  M.     The  Three  Position  Plan  of 

Promotion  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  237 

Webb,  Sidney.    Appointments  and  Dismissals  244 

How  to  figure  the  Labor  Turnover 

Bloomfield,  Daniel.     Computing  Labor  Turnover   

Industrial  Management    251 

Fish,  E.  F.     Computing  Labor  Turnover    

Industrial    Management    253 

Standard    Definition    of   Labor    Turnover   and    Method    of 

Computing  the   Percentage    

Monthly  Review.     U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics    256 


CONTENTS  ix 

The  Cost  of  Labor  Turnover 

Alexander,  Magnus.     The  Cost  of  Labor  Turnover   "^ 

U.S.   Bureau   Labor  Statistics  259 

Elements  in  the  Cost  of  Labor  Turnover  

Industrial  Management  276 

Fisher,  Boyd.    Determining  the  Cost  of  Turnover  of  Labor 

U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics  287 

Medical  Examination  of  Workers 

Schereschewsky,  J.  W.     Physical  Examination  of  Workers 
U.S.  Public  Health  Report    293 

The  New  Foremanship 

Bloomfield,  Meyer.     Relation  of  Foremen  to  the  Working 

Force   Industrial  Management    301 

Cobum,  F.   G.     A  Foreman's  Responsibility  and  Authority 

Industrial  Management    310 

Bowie,  G.  W.    Foremen — Such  as  America  Needs  

Industrial  Management    315 

Hunter,  J.  V.     Creating  a  Class  of  Super-Foremen   

American  Machinist    327 

Co-Operation  in  Management 

The  Whitley  Report  on  Industrial  Councils  331 

Works  Committees 345 

Eliot,  Charles  W.     A  Plan  for  Co-Operative  Management 

Boston    Transcript  390 

Channing,  J.  Parke.     Some  Elements  in  Co-Operation 394 

Maintaining  the  Working  Force 

Fisher,  Boyd.    How  to  Reduce  Labor  Turnover 

Bulletin.    U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics    397 

SInsheimer,  A.    Keeping  Men  at  Their  Jobs Automobile    418 

Colvin,  F.  H.    Reducing  Labor  Turnover  in  Our  Shops 

American   Machinist    428 

Service  Features 

Fitch,  John  A.    Making  the  Job  Worth  While Survey    435 

Whitnej^  A.  L.     Administration    and    Costs    of  Industrial 

Betterment  for  Employees  

Monthly  Review.    U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics    441 


X  CONTENTS 

Whitney,  A.  L.    Medical,  Hospital  and  Surgical  Treatment 

for  Employees   

Monthly  Review.    U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics    449 

Whitney,  A.  L.    Lunch  Rooms  for  Employees   

Monthly  Review.    U.S.  Bureau  Labor  Statistics     45S 

Campbell,  R.  W.     How  to  Organize  for  Safety  

Bulletin.     National  Safety  Council    468 

Nolen,  John.    A  Good  Home  for  Every  Wage-Earner  .... 

Bulletin.     American   Civic  Association    473 

Appendix 

Typical  Forms  for  an  Employment  Department 485 

Index   505 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

Brewer,  John  M.  and  Kelly,  R.  W.    Selected  critical  bibliography 
of  vocational  guidance,    p.  35-59.    Harvard  Univ.  Press.     1917. 
Personnel   Management.     Ja.  '19.     Topical  outline  and  bibliog- 
raphy.    Adjutant  General's  Office,  Washington. 
War  Industries  Board.    Employment  Management  Section.    Em- 
ployment Management,     (mimeographed).    Washington,  1918. 

GENERAL  REFERENCES 

Jones,  Edward  D.    The  Administration  of  industrial  enterprises. 

Longmans.     1916. 
Kelly,  Roy  W.     Hiring  the  worker.     Engineering  Magazine  Co. 

N.Y.     1918. 
McDougall,  William.     Social  psychology.     Holt.     1912. 
Scott,    Walter    Dill.      Increasing   human    efficiency     in   business. 

Macmillan.     1914. 
United   States.      Bureau    of    Labor    Statistics.     Bui.    196.     May, 

1916.      Proceedings   of    Employment    managers'   conference, 

Minneapolis,  January  19,   1916. 
United   States.     Bureau    of  Labor   Statistics.     Bui.  202.     Sept., 

1916.  Proceedings,  Conference  of  Employment  managers'  as- 
sociation, Boston,  May  10,  1916. 

United    States.     Bureau   of   Labor    Statistics.     Bui.   227.      Oct., 

1917.  Proceedings  of  the  Employment  managers'  conference, 
Philadelphia,  April  2,  191 7. 

Webb,  Sidney.     Works  manager  of  to-day.     Longmans.     1917. 
Excerpt  reprinted  in  this  Handbook.      See  page  244. 

AIMS  OF  EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT 

American    Economic   Review.     8:212-31.     Mr.    '18.     Motives   in 

economic  life.     Carleton  H.  Parker. 

Reprinted  in  this   Handbook.      See  page   5. 
American  Journal  of  Sociology.    22  1477-88.    Ja.  '17.    The  human 

element  in  production.     Robert  G.  Valentine. 


xii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.    6i  :i2i-6.     S.  '15.    The  new 
profession  of  handHng  men.    Meyer  Bloomfield. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  33. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.  Vol.  65.  My.  '16.  Personnel 
and  employment  problems.  Edited  by  Meyer  Bloomfield  and 
Jos.  H.  Willits. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.  65  :76-87.  My.  '16.  The  aim 
and  work  of  employment  managers'  associations.  Meyer 
Bloomfield. 

Bloomfield,  Meyer.  Labor  and  compensation.  Industrial  Exten- 
sion Institute.    N.Y.    1918. 

Bloomfield,  Meyer.  Management  and  men.  The  Century  Co. 
1919. 

Engineering  (London).  104:443-4.  O.  26,  '17.  The  human 
factor. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.      See  page  25. 
Everybody's  Magazine.     36:414-27.     Ap.  '17.     New  men  for  old. 
Lilian  Erskine  and  J.  Cleveland. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.      See  page   52. 
Independent.    92:144.     O.  20,  '17.     New  art  of  hiring  and  firing. 
J.  D.  Hackett. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  49. 

Independent.  92:340.  N.  17,  '17.  Handling  men.  G.  S.  Rad- 
ford. 

Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.     See  page    104. 
Industrial  Management.     52:119-20.    Ap.  '17.     Common  sense — a 

safety  device  in  employment.    Meyer  Bloomfield. 
Industrial  Management.     52:441-6.     Ja.  '17.     New  profession  of 

handling  men.     Meyer  Bloomfield. 
Industrial  Management.    56:62-3.    Jl.  '18.     First  epoch  of  a  new 

profession.    Meyer  Bloomfield. 
New  Republic.     15:102-3.    My.  25,  '18.     Rise  of  a  new  profession. 
Review  of  Reviews.     58:269-72.     S.  '18.     Employment  manage- 
ment— a  new  science.    D.  Wilhelm. 
Survey.      38:211-15.      Je.    2,    '17.      Making    the    boss    efficient. 

John  A.  Fitch. 

Reprinted  in   this  Handbook.     See  page   39. 

United  States.     Shipping  Board.     Emergency  Fleet  Corporation. 

Report:  New  England  shipbuilding  conference.     Oct.,  1917. 
United  States.     Shipping  Board.     Emergency  Fleet  Corporation. 

Report :   Shipyard  employment  managers'  conference,     p.   62. 

Washington.     1917. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xiii 

THE  EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.  65  -.67-76.  My.  '16.  A  func- 
tionalized  employment  department  as  a  factor  in  industrial 
efficiency.     E.  M.  Hopkins. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page    149. 

Industrial  Management.  53 :246-5i.  My.  '17.  Employment 
methods  in  the  public  service.    L.  F.  Field. 

Industrial  Management.  55 :303-6,  347-9.  Ap.-My.  '18.  Employ- 
ment personnel  policy  of  Thomas  A.  Edison  interests. 
Mark  M.  Jones. 

Industrial  Management.  55 :499-5oi.  Je  '18.  How  five  firms 
keep  payroll  records  up  to  date.     G.  B.  Merriam. 

Iron  Age.  102:832-3.  O.  3,  '18.  Modem  industrial  relations 
department.    E.  C.  Gould. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page   193. 

Jones,    Edward    D.     Administration    of   industrial    enterprises. 

Chap.  X.     The  employment  of  labor.     Longmans.     1916. 
Labor.    A.  W.  Shaw  Co.    Chicago.     1915. 
Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Co.    Hiring  and  firing.    1918. 

100%.     12 :72-6.     F.  '19.     Playing  fair  with  the  workers.     B.  J. 

Forman. 

Reprinted  in   this   Handbook.     See  page    196. 
United  States.     Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  192:7-14.     My. 

'16.     The   function    of    the  employment  department.     R.   C 

Clothier. 

Reprinted   in    this    Handbook.     See    page    158. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  227:  97-111. 
O.  '17.  The  organization  and  scope  of  the  employment  de- 
partment.   N.  D,  Hubbell. 

Reprinted    in    this    Handbook.     See    page    166. 

United  States.   Shipping  Board.   Emergency   Fleet   Corpora- 
tion.      Organizing   the    employment    department.     Bui.    I. 
Handbook  on  employment  management.   Phila.   1918. 
Reprinted  in   this   Handbook.     See  page    183. 

THE  PERSONNEL  OR  EMPLOYMENT  MANAGER 

American    Federationist.     25 :8oo-i.      S.    '18.      The    employment 

manager.    Meyer  Bloomfield. 
Cashmore,  Hilda.     Industrial  welfare  work  as  a  new  profession 

for  women.     (Privately  Printed,  London,  Eng.). 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page    137. 


xiv  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Collier's  Weekly.  57:15.  Je.  17,  '16.  Handling  men.  W.  Max- 
well. 

Collier's  Weekly.  57 :22-3.  My.  27,  '16.  Employing  men.  W. 
Maxwell. 

Collins,  J.  H.    The  art  of  handling  men.    Altemus.    Phila.    1910. 

Efficiency  Society  Publications.     V.  i,  No.  4.    Ap.  30,  '15.     The 
handling  of  men.    W.  A.  Grieves. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  67. 

Gowin,  E.  B.  The  executive  and  his  control  of  men.  Macmil- 
lan.     1915. 

Handling  men.    A.  W.  Shaw  Co.     Chicago.     191 7. 

How  to  manage  men.     A.  W.  Shaw  Co.     1914. 

Industrial  Management.  53:846-50.  S.  'i7-  The  assistant  from 
the  manager's  and  his  own  viewpoint.     F.  G.  Coburn. 

Industrial  Management.  54:584-5.  Jl.  '17.  Resources  for  the 
employment  manager. 

London  Daily  News.  Ja.  16,  '19.  p.  4.  The  employment  man- 
ager.   Meyer  Bloomfield. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page    113. 

System.     34:313-16.     S.    '18.     Commonsense   in   handling   men. 

F.  R.  Plumb. 
United    States.      Bureau    of    Labor    Statistics.      Bui.    196:    30-8. 

My.  '16.     University  schools  of  business  and  the  training  of 

employment  executives.    H.  S.  Person. 

Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.     See   page    128. 

United  States.  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education.  Op- 
portunity monograph.  Employment  management,  p.  3-12. 
Dec,  1918. 

Article   by    Edward    D.   Jones,    on    Employment   Management,    reprinted 
in   this   Handbook.     See  page    118. 

SOURCES  OF  LABOR  SUPPLY 

How  to  get  workmen.     A.  W.  Shaw  Co.     1913. 

Industrial  Management.  53:737-41.  Ag  '17.  Problems  in  re- 
cruiting employees.     Meyer  Bloomfield. 

United   States.     Bureau   of   Labor   Statistics.     Bui.   202:    15-24. 
'16.     Sources  of  supply  and  means  of  getting  in  touch  with 
them.     H.  B.  Coho. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page   199. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xv 

JOB  ANALYSIS 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.    65:176-82.     My.  '16.     Writ- 
ten specifications  for  hiring.    R.  J.  Bourke. 
United   States.     Department  of  Labor.     Pamphlets  on  descrip- 
tions of  occupations.     1918. 

— Metal  working,  Building  and  general  construction,  Rail- 
road transportation,  Shipbuilding. 
— Boots  and  shoes.  Harness  and  saddlers.  Tanning. 
— Cane  sugar  refining.  Flour  milling. 
— Water  transportation. 
— Mines  and  mining. 
— Logging  camps  and  sawmills. 
— Slaughtering  and  meat  packing. 
— Medicinal  manufacturing. 
— Textiles  and  clothing. 
— Office  employees. 
War   Department.   Document   No.   774.     Office  of  the  Adjutant 
General.     Trade  specifications  and  occupational  index.     J.  J. 
Swan.    Washington.     1918. 

SELECTION  AND  PLACEMENT 

Advertising  and  Selling.     25:5-6,  94-6;  11,  55;  11,  69-70.     O.-D. 

'15.    The  scientific  selection  of  salesmen.    W.  D.  Scott. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  222. 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy.     65 :289-96.     My.   '16.     The 

three  position  plan  of  promotion.     F.  B.  and  L.  M.  Gilbreth. 

Reprinted  in   this  Handbook.     See  page   237. 
Gowin,  E.  B.     The  selection  and  training  of  business  executives. 

Macmillan.     1918. 
United   States.     Public  Health  Service.     Reports.     Reprint  no. 

234:3-8.      N.    20,     '14.       Physical    examination    of    workers. 

J.  W.  Schereschewsky. 

Reprinted  in  this   Handbook.     See  page   293. 

FITTING  THE  WORKER  TO  HIS  JOB 

Allen,  Charles  R.    The  Instructor,  the  man,  the  job.    Lippincott. 

1919.  ur,i;.i  j.:^ 

Bloomfield,    Meyer.     Youth,    school    and   vocation.     Houghton. 

1915. 
Harper's  Monthly.     134:64-70.     D.  '16.     Fitting  the  man  to  the 
job.     B.  J.  Hendrick. 


xvi  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Industrial  Management.  56:316-19.  O.  '18,  Training  minor  ex- 
ecutives in  a  shoe   factory.     R.  W.  Kelly. 

Personnel  (War  Dept.  Wash.  D.C.).  O.  2,  '18.  Making  of  a 
trade  test. 

Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.     See  page   207. 

System.     32:183-5.     Ag.   '17.     Fitting  employees   for  new  jobs. 

A.  W.  Douglas. 
System.     32:909-11.     D.    '17.     How    we    are    training    women 

workers. 
United    States.      War    Department.      Commissioned    Personnel 

Branch.      Operations    Division.      General    Staff.      The    rating 

scale :  instructions. 

Reprinted    in    this    Handbook.     See    page    213. 

LABOR  TURNOVER 

American  Economic  Review.  7  :3o6-i6.  Je.  '18.  The  problem  of 
labor  turnover.    Paul  H.  Douglas. 

Reprinted   in   this  Handbook.     See  page  89. 
American  Machinist.    48:27-9.    Ja.  3,  '18.    Reducing  labor  turn- 
over in  our  shops.    F.  H.  Colvin. 

Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.     See  page   428. 
American   Machinist.     48 :693-6.     Ap.  25,   '18.     Labor  turnover. 
Philip  Brasher. 
Reprinted  in   this   Handbook.     See  page  84. 

American  Machinist.    48:821-2.     My.  16,  '18.     Problem  of  labor 
turnover.     M.   C.   Hobart. 
Reprinted  in  this   Handbook.     See  page  99. 

American   Machinist.     49:855-8.     N.   7,   '18.   Interpreting    labor 

turnover.     L.  D.  Burlingame. 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy.     61 1127-37.     S.  '15.     Labor 

turnover  and  the  humanizing  of  industry.     J.  H.  Willits. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy.  Vol.  71.  My.  '17.  Stabiliz- 
ing industrial  employment.     Edited  by  J.  H.  Wiilits. 

Automobile.  36:524-8.  Mr.  8,  '17.  Keeping  men  at  their  jobs. 
A.  Sinsheimer. 

Reprinted  in   this   Handbook.     See  page  418. 
Engineering  News.     73  :694.     Ap.  8,  '15.     A  contractor's  method 

of  holding  good  men.     M.  C.  Tuttle. 
Factory.     17:653-6.     D.  '16.    The  high  cost  of  labor  that  comes 

and  goes. 
Industrial   Management.     56:239-46.      S.    '18.     Computing   labor 

turnover ;  a  questionnaire. 

Reprinted  in   this  Handbook.     See  page  251. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xvii 

Industrial  Management.     57:239-45.     Mr.  '19.     Elements  in  the 
cost  of  labor  turnover:  a  symposium. 
Reprinted  in   this  Handbook.     See  page  276. 

Inland  Printer.     56:673.     F.  '16.     Retaining  employees.     W.  H. 

Grieves. 
Iron  Trade  Review.  57:488-9.     S.  9,  '15.     How  to  keep  men  in 

your  employ.     W.  H.  Grieves. 
Literary  Digest.     56:102-4.     Mr.  30,   '18.     How  labor  shiftings 

have  increased  from  10  per  cent  to  150  per  cent. 
Literary  Digest.    57:25.    Ap.  27,  '18.    What  it  costs  to  hire  and 

fire. 
100%.     10:47-50.      Ja,    '18.       Reducing      labor    turnover    90%. 

Robert  E.  Lee. 
Saturday  Evening  Post.     189:50-52.     Ja.  27,  '17.     Making  men 

stick.     Forrest  Crissey. 
Schlichter,  S.  H.    The  turnover  of  factory  labor.    Appleton.     1919. 
System.     30 :48-53.      Jl.  '16.      Knack  of  holding  your  men.     L. 

Willard. 
System.     32:966.     D.  '17.     Why  we  can  hold  our  men.     C.  H. 

Slocum. 
System.    33  :707-io.    My.  '18.    Why  our  men  don't  leave.    J.  H. 

McCuUough. 
United  States.    Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  227:13-27.     O. 

'17.     The  cost  of  labor  turnover.    M.  Alexander. 

Reprinted   in  this  Handbook.     See   page  259. 
United  States.     Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  227:29-47.     O. 

'17.     How  to  reduce  labor  turnover.     Boyd  Fisher. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  397. 

United  States.     Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  227  :6o-65.     O. 
'17.     Determining  cost  of  turnover.    Boyd  Fisher. 
Reprinted  in  this   Handbook.     See  page  287. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Mo.  Rev.  Vol.  6. 
p.  172-3.  Je.  '18.  Standard  definition  of  labor  turnover  and 
method  of  computing  the  percentage. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  256. 

HEALTH  AND  SANITATION 

Industrial  IManagement.  52:493-502.  Ja.  '17.  Measuring  the 
workman's  physical  fitness.     M.  W.  Alexander. 

Industrial  Management.  54:13-19.  O.  '17.  Health  of  the  work- 
ing force.    O.  P.  Geier. 


xviii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Indvistrial  Management.  55 :48-S4.  Ja.  '18.  Cost  of  industrial 
health  supervision.     R.  Trautschold. 

Industrial  IManagement.  56:63.  Jl.  '18.  Rest  rooms  and  their 
influence  on  application  to  work.     L.  H.  Butler. 

Price,  George  M.     The  modern  factory.     Saunders,  N.Y.     1914. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  222.  Ap.  '17. 
Welfare  work  in  British  munition  factories. 

United   States.     Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Monthly  Review. 
Vol.  5,  No.  3.     S  '17.     p.  59-67.     Medical,  hospital,  and  surgi- 
cal treatment  for  employees.    Anice  L.  Whitney. 
Reprinted   in   this    Handbook.     See   page   449. 

United  States.  Public  Health  Service.  Reports.  Reprint  No. 
197:1417-20.  Je  5,  '14.  Industrial  insurance.  J.  W.  Scher- 
eschewsky. 

FOREMANSHIP 

American  Machinist.     48:865-6.     My.  23,   '18.     Creating  a  class 
of  super-foremen.     J.   V.  Hunter. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  327. 

Industrial  Management.  53:340-9.  Je.  '17.  Relation  of  foremen 
to  the  working  force.     Meyer  Bloomfield. 

Reprinted    in    this   Handbook.     See    page    301. 

Industrial    Management.     53:349-53-     Je  'i7-     A   foreman's  re- 
sponsibility and  authority.     F.  G.  Coburn. 
Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.     See  page   310. 

Industrial  Management.    53:702-13.    Ag.  '17.    Foremen — such  as 

America  needs.     G.  W.  Bowie. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  315. 

Industrial  Management.  55:145-6.  F.  '18.  The  new  foreman- 
ship.     Meyer  Bloomfield. 

Industrial  Management.  56:143-4.  Ag.  '18.  Getting  the  fore- 
man's cooperation.     W.  F.  Johnson. 

CO-OPERATION  IN  MANAGEMENT 

Boston  Transcript.  Mr.  15,  '19.  A  plan  for  cooperative  man- 
agement.    Charles  W.  Eliot. 

Reprinted    in    this    Handbook.     Sec   page    390. 
Industrial  Councils.     The  Whitley  report.     British  Ministry  of 
Labor.     191 7. 

Reprinted   in   this  Handbook.     See  page   331. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xix 

Saturday  Evening  Post.  191  :i2.  Mr.  15,  '19.  Control  of  the 
job.    Meyer  Bloomfield. 

Works  committees.     British  Ministry  of  Labour.     1918. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  345. 

SERVICE  WORK 

Department  of  Labor.  State  of  New  York.  Special  Bulletin. 
91.  Ja.  '19.  A  plan  for  shop  safety,  sanitation  and  health  or- 
ganization. 

Henderson,  C.  R.     Citizens  in  industry.     Appleton.     1915. 

Hutton,  J.  E.    Welfare  and  housing.    Longmans.     1918. 

Industrial  Management.  52:757-67.  Mr.  '17.  Some  experiences 
with  profit-sharing.     D.  T.  Farnham. 

Industrial  Management.  53:441-5.  Je.  '17.  Important  lessons 
from  British  experience. 

Industrial  Management.  55:34-9-  109-15,  219-24,  293-7,  465-70, 
Ja.-Ap.,  Je.  '18;  56:12-16.  Jl.  '18.  Employees  benefit  associa- 
tions.    W.  L.  Chandler. 

Industrial  Management.  55:i45-  F.  '18.  The  factory  news- 
paper.    R.  Voorhees. 

National  Safety  Council.  Bulletin.  How  to  organize  for  safety. 
R.  W.  Campbell. 

Reprinted   in   this   Handbook.      See   page   468. 

Proud,  E.  Dorothea.    Welfare  work.    G.  Bell  &  Sons,  Ltd.    1916. 
Survey.     40:87-9.     Ap.  27,    '18.     Making  the   job   worth   while. 

John  A.  Fitch. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  435. 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.     New  ideals  in  business.     Macmillan.     1917. 
Tolman,   William* H.      Social    engineering.      McGraw    Pub.    Co 

N.Y.     1909. 
Tolman,  William  H.  and  Kendall,  L.  B.    Safety.    Harpers.    1913. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  222.  Ap.  '17. 
Welfare  work  in  British  munition  factories. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Monthly  Review. 
Vol.  5,  No.  4.  p.  154-6.  O.  '17.  Rest  and  recreation  rooms 
and  rest  periods  for  employees.    Anice  L.  Whitney. 


XX  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

United  States.     Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Monthly  Review. 

Vol.  5,  No.  5.     N.  '17.     p.  201-12.     Clubs,  gymnasiums,  and 

recreation  grounds  for  employees.    Anice  L.  Whitney. 
United  States.     Bureau   of  Labor  Statistics.     Monthly  Review. 

Vol.  5,  No.  6.    D.  '17.    p.  207-15.    Lunch  rooms  for  employees. 

Anice  L.  Whitney. 

Reprinted   in   this  Handbook.     See   page  458. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Monthly  Review. 
Vol.  6,  No.  3.  Mr.  '18.  p.  199-206.  Administration  and  costs 
of  industrial  betterment  for  employees.  Anice  L.  Whitney. 
Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  441. 

United  States.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Monthly  Review. 
Vol.  16,  No.  I.  Ja.  '18.  p.  195-205.  Social  betterment  work 
among  employees'   families.     E.  A.  Hyde. 

RELATION   WITH   THE   COMMUNITY 

American  Civic  Association.  Bulletin.  A  good  home  for  every 
wage-earner.    John  Nolen. 

Reprinted  in  this  Handbook.     See  page  473. 

Architectural  Review.  3:69-74.  S.  '15.  A  German  "Garden 
City"  suburb. 

Architectural  Review.  Vol.  5,  No.  4.  Ap.  '18.  Successful  ex- 
amples of  low-cost  housing. 

United  States.  Public  Health  Service.  Reports.  Reprint  No. 
195:1-15.  My.  29,  '14.  Industrial  conditions:  their  relation 
to  the  public  health.     B.  S.  Warren, 


SELECTED  ARTICLES  ON  EMPLOYMENT 
MANAGEMENT 


INTRODUCTION 

This  book  is  significant  of  our  time.  You  may  ransack  the 
literature  of  industrial  management  written  ten  years  ago  and 
you  will  not  find  the  phrase  "employment  management"  used  or 
the  work  of  the  personnel  or  employment  supervisor  mentioned. 
No  college  or  university  school  of  business  training  of  that  day 
dealt  with  the  problem.  And  the  reason  for  this  is  simple. 
Neither  the  work  of  employment  management  nor  the  functions 
of  an  employment  executive  were  recognized  in  the  scheme  of 
industrial  organization  as  it  was  commonly  carried  out. 

This  is  not  to  imply  that  industrial  managers  were  unaware 
of  what  a  sound  plan  of  personnel  organization  meant  to  indus- 
try. As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were  corporations  here  and  there, 
engineers,  and  business  executives  who  had  for  a  long  time 
clearly  perceived  that  a  new  function  was  developing  in  business 
administration,  and  moreover,  had  taken  steps  to  put  into  prac- 
tice their  perception  of  this  new  function.  There  were  men  filling 
various  posts  on  the  executive  staff  who  were  daily  demonstrat- 
ing the  best  principles  of  employment  management. 

But  industry  as  a  whole,  a  decade  ago,  had  either  no  idea  of 
the  new  service  which  needed  incorporation  in  the  management 
plan  or  had  not  seriously  addressed  itself  to  the  task.  All  this  is 
now  changed.  There  is  a  growing  and  an  important  literature 
on  this  subject,  as  the  present  volume  so  effectively  proves.  The 
profession  of  employment  manager  has  come  into  its  own.  Col- 
leges give  courses  of  training  for  it  and  every  enterprising 
employing  organization  features  its  employment  work. 

This  change  has  been  most  beneficial  both  to  employer  and 
employed,  and  it  has  brought  a  new  human  note  into  industry. 
From  the  most  hard-hearted  business  viewpoint,  management  has 
everything  to  gain  from  a  sincere  and  intelligent  attempt  to  deal 
with  the  problem  of  building  up  and  maintaining  the  working 


2  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

force  in  the  light  of  principles  and  experiences  which  the  move- 
ment of  employment  management  is  systematizing.  From  a 
social  or  civic  viewpoint  the  movement  has  as  its  prime  motive 
the  conservation  of  human  energies  to  the  end  both  of  industrial 
efficiency  and  of  human  satisfaction  through  work. 

Because  of  this  twofold,  positive  contribution  to  production 
and  well-being,  this  movement  was  bound  to  grow  as  it  has. 
Beginning  in  a  most  modest  way  in  Boston,  with  a  small  group 
of  men  invited  to  consider  the  project  of  meeting  regularly  for 
discussion  of  employment  problems;  with  a  tentative  training 
outline  in  employment  work  submitted  to  Dartmouth  College ; 
and  with  what  was  a  pioneer  organization  known  as  the  Boston 
Employment  Managers  Association,  the  work  has  developed 
rapidly.  Unlike  many  another  pioneer  work,  it  has  not  had  to 
fight  its  way.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  received  universal  wel- 
come. 

And  here  is  a  danger.  The  work  has  grown  too  fast  for 
standards  to  be  all  that  they  should  be  in  every  case — vision,  fit- 
ness, and  good  sense  are  sometimes  missing.  It  is  well  to  know 
this,  for  by  knowledge  improvement  and  changes  come.  There 
are  standards  today  by  which  to  criticize  and  measure.  Once 
this  was  not  possible.  Now  that  it  is,  the  growth  of  employment 
management  will  be  due  as  much  to  rigid  appraisal  of  men  and 
methods  as  to  enthusiastic  and  uncritical  acceptance.  Indeed  the 
line  of  most  promise  for  this  vital  work  is  in  the  increasing 
subjection  to  test  and  criticism  of  all  personnel  and  programs  in 
the  field  of  employment  management. 

This  book  will  serve  as  an  excellent  manual.  Its  material  is 
helpful  to  the  formation  of  a  sound  judgment  as  to  what  is  best 
in  the  employment  management  field ;  its  information  is  prac- 
tical; its  general  outlook  sound.  It  is  the  first  book  of  its  kind 
and  will  meet  a  need  not  otherwise  met. 

The  employment  manager  has  come  to  stay,  though  time  and 
growing  experience  may  enlarge  and  modify  the  present  con- 
ception of  his  work  and  duties.  Those  who  are  concerned  with 
making  him  and  his  service  in  industry  a  source  of  upbuilding 
for  management  and  men,  and  a  help  to  right  industrial  rela- 
tions, will  find  this  book  a  valuable  guide. 
April  12,  1919.  Meyer  Bloomfield. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGERS 
ASSOCIATIONS 

NATIONAL  Association   of   Employment   Managers,   Box  543, 

Orange,  N.  J. 

(Publishes    Monthly    Bulletin    called    "Personnel"). 

CALIFORNIA 
Oakland — Service  and  Employment  Managers'  Association. 

CONNECTICUT 
Bridgeport — Employment  Managers'    Association. 
Hartford — Employment  Executives'  Club  oi  Hartford. 

ILLINOIS 
Chicago— 'Employment  Managers'  Association. 

INDIANA 
Indianapolis — Employment  Managers'  Association. 

MASSACHUSETTS 
Boston — Employment  Managers'  Association. 
Pitts  field— Employment   Managers'    Association    of   Berkshire 
County. 

MICHIGAN 
Detroit — Employment  Managers'  Club  of  Detroit. 
Muskegon — Muskegon   Employment   Managers'   Association. 

MISSOURI 
St.  Louis — St.  Louis  Employment  Executives  Club. 

NEW  JERSEY 
Jersey  City — Jersey  City  Council  of  the  National  Association 

of  Employment  Managers. 
Newark — Society  for  Study  of  Employment  Problems. 

NEW  YORK 
Auburn — Employment  Managers'  Association  of  Auburn. 
Buffalo— Associated  Employment  Supervisors. 
New    York    City— The   Executives'   Club    of   New    York,    30 
Church  Street. 


4  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

New  York   City — The     Personnel     Managers'    Club     of     the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,   Borough  of  Queens. 

Niagara   Falls — Employment    Managers'    Group,    Chamber    of 
Commerce. 

Rochester — Industrial     Management     Council     of     Rochester 
Chamber  of  Commerce. 

OHIO 

Canton — Starke  County  Employment  Managers'   School. 

Cleveland — Employment    Managers'    Group    of    Chamber    of 
Commerce. 

Cincinnati — Employment  Managers'  Association. 

Hamilton — Employment  Managers'  Club. 

Toledo — Toledo  Employment  Managers'  Club. 

PENNSYLVANIA 
Erie — Employment  Managers'  Association  of  Erie. 

Philadelphia — Employment  Managers'  Association. 

— Philadelphia  Association  for  the  Discussion  of 
Employment  Problems. 

Pittsburgh — Employment   Managers'   Association   of   the   Em- 
ployers' Association. 

RHODE  ISLAND 
Blackstone  Valley — Employment  Managers'  Association. 

WISCONSIN 
Milwaukee — Milwaukee   Employment   Managers'   Association. 

CANADA 
Toronto,  Ontario — Employment  Managers'  Association. 


FOUNDATIONS  OF  EMPLOYMENT 
MANAGEMENT 

MOTIVES  IN  ECONOMIC  LIFE^ 

The  first  quarter  of  this  century  is  breaking  up  in  a  riot  of 
economic  irrationalism.  The  carefully  selected  efficiency  axioms 
of  peaceful  life  are  tossed  on  the  scrap  heap,  and  all  society 
seems  to  be  seeking  objects  and  experiences  not  found  in  any  of 
our  economists'  careful  descriptions  of  the  modern  industrial 
order.  War  allies  refuse  to  unify  their  military  policy,  Russia 
is  called  on  to  exhibit  a  sedate  and  stable  economic  life  when 
she  lacks  wholesale  all  the  attributes  to  it.  And  we  Americans, 
despite  the  notorious  record  of  stringent  social  accounting  im- 
posed by  the  standards  of  war  efficiency,  still  lean  with  fine  con- 
fidence upon  the  structure  of  genial  optimism  which  dominates 
so  much  of  our  national  psychology.  We  look  hopefully  to  see 
patriotism  flow  pure  and  strong  from  an  industrial  stratum 
whose  occasional  phenomena  are  Lawrence,  McKees  Rock,  Pat- 
erson,  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron,  the  Durst  hop  ranch  in  Califor- 
nia, Everett  in  Washington,  Butte  in  Montana,  Bisbee  in 
Arizona.  Though  strikes  have  increased  some  300  per  cent  over 
peace  times,  though  the  American  labor  world  is  boiling  and 
sputtering  disturbances,  bewildering  in  their  variety  and  rapidity 
of  appearance,  our  cure  is  a  vague  caution  to  "wait  until  casual- 
ties begin  to  come,"  an  uneasy  contemplation  of  labor  conscrip- 
tion, or  a  wave  of  suppression. 

Though  national  unity,  economic  and  military,  seems  the  ob- 
vious and  essential  aim  of  the  patriotic  citizen,  much  done  in  the 
name  of  unification  seems  to  be  curiously  efficient  in  producing 
disunity.  The  following  commonplace  incident  illustrates  this. 
Note  first  that  Seattle  is  in  a  state  of  extreme  industrial  unrest. 
During  a  single  short  period  this  summer,  that  city  had  a  two 
weeks'  strike  paralysis  of  its  street-car  system,  a  threatened 
walk-out  of  the  gas  workers,  was  the  strike  center  of  a  complete 

*  By  Carleton  H.  Parker.  American  Economic  Review.  8:212-31. 
March,   1918. 


6  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

tie-up  of  the  lumber  industry  of  the  state,  experienced  a  build- 
ing-trades strike  involving  the  entire  city,  had  a  walk-out  of 
30,000  shipbuilders,  an  express  drivers'  strike,  a  candy  workers' 
strike,  a  newsboys'  strike,  and  enjoyed  the  beginning  of  an  or- 
ganization of  domestic  servants.  This  city  so  described  becomes 
the  environment  for  the  following  incident. 

The  1.  W.  W.  is  strong  in  the  Pacific  Northwest,  and  though 
it  bitterly  fights  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  some  of  the 
federation  trade  unions  found  in  the  rough-handed  trades,  such 
as  lumbering,  stevedoring,  and  even  shipbuilding,  have  drifted 
toward  syndicalism  and  many  of  their  members  even  carry 
secretly  the  red  cards  of  the  L  W.  W.  The  federal  government 
has  met  the  anti-war  agitation  of  the  I.  W.  W.  with  fair  clever- 
ness. When  arrests  have  been  made,  publicity  has  been  given  to 
the  alleged  treasonable  activity  of  the  leaders,  and  the  govern- 
ment case  sustained  before  the  public.  The  economic  activities 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  L  W.  W.,  however,  have  not  been 
interfered  with,  and  their  meeting  halls  in  the  Northwest  con- 
tinue thronged  and  the  center  of  their  strike  activity.  A  Mrs. 
Sandburg,  a  Finnish  woman,  widow,  with  two  children  of  three 
and  six,  lives  on  a  small  farm  near  Seattle.  Being  destitute  she 
had  been  awarded  a  mothers'  pension  by  King  County.  On 
November  17  of  this  year  this  pension  was  cut  off  and  the 
woman  recommended  for  deportation  because  federal  officers 
asserted  that  "she  was  actively  working  in  the  interests  of  the 
L  W.  W.,  meetings  had  been  held  at  her  home,  and  members  of 
the  organization  had  visited  there  frequently."  Nothing  could 
be  more  ingeniously  done  to  focus  the  interest  of  a  large  un- 
restful  labor  group  in  the  state  of  Washington  on  syndicalism 
than  this  incident.  This  well-intentioned  and  conventionally 
patriotic  act  is  not  merely  inopportune,  it  is  unhappily  creative. 
The  great  emotional  outflow  stimulated  into  existence  by  the 
startling  announcement  of  our  national  danger  is  being  trans- 
ferred from  its  desirable  nationalistic  object  and  focused  on  such 
activities,  distressing  both  socially  and  economically.  It  seems 
an  accurate  example  of  the  Freudian  iihertragung,  the  transfer- 
ence of  emotional  expression.  Such  a  mutilation  of  the  psycho- 
logical basis  of  Seattle's  patriotic  unity  does  not  run  counter  to 
the  current  standards  of  acceptable  economic  or  social  develop- 
ment. To  most  of  the  citizenship  national  unity  remains  a  legal 
concept. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT         7 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  such  a  pseudo-politico  economic  illustra- 
tion to  a  consideration  of  the  delinquencies  of  modern  econom- 
ics, but  there  is  a  vital  relation.  Our  conventional  economics 
today  analyzes  no  phase  of  industrialism  nor  the  wage  relation- 
ship, nor  citizenship  in  pecuniary  society,  in  a  manner  to  offer  a 
key  to  such  distressing  and  complex  problems  as  this.  Human 
nature  riots  today  through  our  economic  structure  with  ridicule 
and  destruction,  and  we  economists  look  on  helpless  and  aghast. 
The  menace  of  the  war  does  not  seem  potent  to  quiet  revolt  or 
still  class  cries.  The  anxiety  and  apprehension  of  the  economist 
should  not  be  produced  by  this  cracking  of  his  economic  system, 
but  by  the  poverty  of  the  criticism  of  industrialism  which  his 
science  offers.  \\'hy  are  economists  mute  in  the  presence  of  a 
most  obvious  crisis  in  our  industrial  society?  Why  have  our 
criticisms  of  industrialism  no  sturdy  warnings  about  this  un- 
happy evolution?  Why  does  an  agitated  officialdom  search 
today  in  vain  among  our  writings  for  scientific  advice  touching 
labor  inefficiency  or  industrial  disloyalty,  for  prophecies  and 
plans  about  the  rise  in  our  industrialism  of  economic  classes 
unharmonious  and  hostile? 

The  fair  answer  seems  this.  We  economists  speculate  little 
on  human  motives.  We  are  not  curious  about  the  great  basis  of 
fact  which  dynamic  and  behavioristic  psychology  has  gathered 
to  illustrate  the  instinct  stimulus  to  human  activity.  Most  of  us 
are  not  interested  to  think' of  what  a  psychologically  full  or 
satisfying  life  is.  We  are  not  curious  to  know  that  a  great 
school  of  behavior  analysis  called  the  Freudian  has  been  built 
around  the  human  instincts.  Our  economic  literature  shows 
that  we  are  but  rarely  curious  to  know  whether  industrialism  is 
suited  to  man's  inherited  nature,  or  what  man  in  turn  will  do  to 
our  rules  of  economic  conduct  in  case  these  rules  are  repressive. 
The  motives  to  economic  activity  which  have  done  the  major 
service  in  orthodox  economic  texts  and  teachings  have  been 
either  the  vague  middleclass  virtues  of  thrift,  justice,  and 
solvency;  or  the  equally  vague  moral  sentiments  of  "striving  for 
the  welfare  of  others,"  "desire  for  the  larger  self,"  "desire  to 
equip  oneself  well";  or  lastly,  that  labor-saving  deduction  that 
man  Is  stimulated  in  all  things  economic  by  his  desire  to  satisfy 
his  wants  with  the  smallest  possible  effort.  All  this  gentle 
parody  in  motive  theorizing  continued  contemporaneously  with 
the    output    of    the    rich    literature    of    social    and    behavioristic 


8  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

psychology   which   was   almost  entirely  addressed   to   this   very 
problem  of  human  motives  in  modern  economic  society.     Note- 
worthy exceptions  are  the  remarkable  scries  of  Veblen  books, 
the  articles  and  criticisms  by  Mitchell,  Fisher,  and  Patten,  and 
the   significant   small   book   by  Taussig   entitled   Inventors  and 
Money-Makers.     It  is  to  this  complementary  field  of  psychology 
that  the  economists  must  turn  for  a  vitalization  of  their  basic 
hypotheses.     There  awaits  them  a  bewildering  array  of  studies 
of  the  motives,  emotions,  and  folk  ways  of  our  pecuniary  civil- 
ization.   Generalizations  and  experiment  statistics  abound  ready- 
made  for  any  structure  of  economic  criticism.     The  human  mo- 
tives are  isolated,  described,  compared.     Business  confidence,  the 
release    of    work    energy,    advertising   appeal,    market   vagaries, 
the    basis    of    value   computations,    decay   of    workmanship,    the 
labor  unrest,  decline  in  the  thrift  habit,  are  the  subjects  treated. 
A    brief    list   of    these    economic-psychologists    is   impressive : 
Veblen,  Thorndike,  Hollingworth,  Dewey,  James,  Watson,  Holt, 
Sumner,    Thomas,    Stanley    Hall,    Jastrow,    Patrick,    Hobhouse, 
M'Dougall,    Hart,    Shand,    Wallas,    Lippmann,     Freud,     Prince, 
Southard,  Glueck,  Brill,  Bailey,  Paton,  Cannon,  Crile,  and  so  on. 
One  might  say,  with  fairness,  that  each  one  of  these  has  con- 
tributed   criticism    touching   the   springs    of    human    activity   of 
which  no  economic  theorist  can  afford  to  plead  ignorance.    The 
stabilizing  of  the  science  of  psychology  and  the  vogue  among 
economists  of  the  scientific  method  will  not  allow  these  psycho- 
logical  findings   to  be  shouldered  out  by  the  careless  a  priori 
deductions    touching    human    nature    which    still    dominate    our 
orthodox  texts.    The  confusion  and  metaphysical  propensities  of 
our  economic  theory,  our  neglect  of  the  consequences  of  child 
labor,  our  lax  interest  in  national  vitality  and  health,  the  un- 
usableness  of  our  theories  of  labor  unrest  and  of  labor  efficiency, 
our  careless  reception  of  problems  of  population,  eugenics,  sex, 
and  birth  control ;  our  ignorance  of  the  relation  of  industry  to 
crime,  industry  to  feeble-mindedness,  industry  to  functional  in- 
sanity,  industry  to  education;    and  our  astounding  indifference 
to  the  field  of  economic  consumption — all  this  delinquency  can 
be  traced  back  to  our  refusal  to  see  that  economics  was  social 
economics,  and  that  a  full  knowledge  of  man,  his  instincts,  his 
power  of  habit  acquisition,  his  psychological  demands  were  an 
absolute  prerequisite  to  clear  and  purposeful   thinking  on   our 
industrial    civilization.      M'Dougall,    the   Oxford  social   psychol- 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  9 

ogist,  said  in  direct  point:  "Political  economy  suffered  hardly 
less  from  the  crude  nature  of  the  psychological  assumption  from 
which  it  professed  to  deduce  the  explanations  of  its  facts,  and 
its  prescriptions  for  economic  legislation.  It  would  be  a  libel 
not  altogether  devoid  of  truth  to  say  that  the  classical  political 
economy  was  a  tissue  of  false  conclusions  drawn  from  false 
psychological  assumptions." 

What  then  are  the  facts  of  human  nature  which  the  newer 
psychology'  offers  as  the  beginning  of  economic  theorizing? 

Man  is  born  into  this  world  accompanied  by  a  rich  psychical 
disposition  which  furnishes  him  ready-made  all  his  motives  for 
conduct,  all  his  desires,  economic  or  wasteful,  moral  or  de- 
praved, crass  or  aesthetic.  He  can  show  a  demand  for  nothing 
that  is  not  prompted  by  this  galaxy  of  instincts.  He  is  a  mosaic 
of  unit  tendencies  to  react  faithfully  in  certain  ways  when  cer- 
tain stimuli  are  present.  As  M'Dougall  has  graphically  put  it, 
"Take  away  these  instinctive  dispositions  with  their  powerful 
impulses  and  the  human  organism  would  become  incapable  of 
activity  of  any  kind;  it  would  lie  inert  and  motionless  like  a 
wonderful  clockwork  whose  mainspring  had  been  removed  or 
a  steam  engine  whose  fires  had  been  drawn.  These  impulses 
are  the  mental  forces  which  maintain  and  shape  all  the  life  of 
individuals  and  societies,  and  in  them  we  are  confronted  with 
the  central  mystery  of  life  and  mind  and  will." 

Thorndike,  the  Columbia  psychologist,  in  his  analysis  of 
human  motives,  has  written,  "The  behavior  of  man  in  the  fam- 
ily, in  business,  in  the  state,  in  religion,  and  in  every  other  affair 
of  life,  is  rooted  in  his  unlearned  original  equipment  of  instincts 
and  capacities.  All  schemes  of  improving  human  life  must  take 
account  of  man's  original  nature,  most  of  all  when  their  aim  is 
to  counteract  it." 

Veblen  wrote  in  his  book,  The  Instinct  of  Workmanship,  "for 
mankind,  as  for  the  other  higher  animals,  the  life  of  the  species 
is  conditioned  by  the  complement  of  instinctive  proclivities,  and 
tropismatic  aptitudes  with  which  the  species  is  t3^pically  en- 
dowed. Not  only  is  the  continued  life  of  the  race  dependent 
upon  the  adequacy  of  its  instinctive  proclivities  in  this  way,  but 
the  routine  and  details  of  its  life  are  also,  in  a  last  resort,  de- 
termined by  these  instincts.  These  are  the  prime  movers  in 
human  behavior,  as  in  the  behavior  of  all  those  animals  that 
show   self-direction   or  discretion.     The   human   activity,   in   so 


10  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

far  as  it  can  be  spoken  of  as  conduct,  can  never  exceed  the 
scope  of  these  instinctive  dispositions  by  initiative  of  which  man 
takes  action.  Nothing  falls  within  the  human  scheme  of  things 
desirable  to  be  done  except  what  answers  to  these  native  procliv- 
ities of  man.  These  native  proclivities  alone  make  anything 
worth  while,  and  out  of  their  working  emerge  not  only  the 
purpose  and  efficiency  of  life  but  its  substantial  pleasures  and 
pains   as  well." 

John  Dewey  wrote  in  his  Democracy  in  Education:  "The  in- 
stinct activities  may  be  called,  metaphorically,  spontaneous  in 
the  sense  that  the  organs  give  a  strong  bias  for  a  certain  sort  of 
operation — a  bias  so  strong  that  we  cannot  go  contrary  to  it, 
though  by  trying  to  go  contrary  we  may  pervert,  stunt,  and  cor- 
rupt them." 

Cannon,  the  Harvard  physiologist,  has  said :  "More  and  more 
it  is  appearing  that  in  men  of  all  races,  and  in  most  of  the 
higher  animals,  the  springs  of  action  are  to  be  found  in  the  in- 
fluences of  certain  emotions  which  express  themselves  in  char- 
acteristic instinctive  acts." 

Instincts  to  their  modern  possessor  seem  unreasoning  and 
unrational,  and  often  embarassing.  To  the  race,  however,  they 
are  an  efficient  and  tried  guide  to  conduct,  for  they  are  the 
result  of  endless  experiments  of  how  to  fight,  to  grow,  to 
procreate,  under  the  ruthless  valuing  mechanism  of  the  com- 
petition for  survival.  In  fact,  outside  of  some  relatively  unim- 
portant bodily  attributes,  the  instincts  are  all  that  our  species  in 
its  long  evolution  has  considered  worth  saving.  When  one  con- 
siders the  unarmed  state  in  which  the  soft-bodied  human  is 
shoved  out  in  the  world  to  fight  for  his  existence  against 
creatures  with  thick  hides,  vise-like  jaws,  and  claws,  it  becomes 
clearly  evident  that  if  man  had  not  been  equipped  with  an  in- 
stinctive and  unlearned  code  of  efficient  competition  behavior 
his  struggle  on  this  earth  would  have  been  brief  and  tragic. 
And  also  in  contrast  with  his  own  remote  ape  ancestors,  one 
could  in  retrospect  see  that  the  survival  of  the  human  species 
must  have  had  as  a  prerequisite  a  rich  and  varied  instinct  equip- 
ment which  removed  man  from  the  necessity  of  learning  a 
complete  scheme  of  behavior  via  the  dangerous  trial  and  error 
method.  The  species,  without  some  imlearned  and  protective 
capacities,  would  not  have  lasted  the  instruction.  Within  the 
past  ten  thousand  years  nothing  in  our  brilliant  experiment  with 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        ii 

the  environment  called  civilization  has  been  long  enough  adhered 
to  to  bring  about  a  psjxhical  adjustment  capable  of  physical 
inheritance,  and  so  the  basic  motives  of  the  business  man  today 
remain  those  of  his  cave  ancestor.  The  contribution  of  civiliza- 
tion has  been  merely  an  accumulation  of  more  or  less  useful 
traditions  touching  habits  accidental  in  character  and  question- 
able in  desirability. 

All  human  activit}',  then,  is  untiringly  actuated  by  the  de- 
mand for  realization  of  the  instinct  wants.  If  an  artificially 
limited  field  of  human  endeavor  be  called  economic  life,  all  of 
its  so-called  motives  hark  directly  back  to  the  human  instincts 
for  their  origin.  There  are,  in  truth,  no  economic  motives  as 
such.  The  motives  of  economic  life  are  the  same  as  those  of 
the  life  of  art,  of  vanitj'^  and  ostentation,  of  war  and  crime,  of 
sex.  Economic  life  is  merely  the  life  in  which  instinct  gratifica- 
tion is  alleged  to  take  on  a  rational  pecuniary  habit  form.  Man 
is  not  less  a  father  with  a  father's  parental  instinct-interest  just 
because  he  passes  down  the  street  from  his  home  to  his  office. 
His  business  raid  into  his  rival's  market  has  the  same  naive 
charm  that  tickled  the  heart  of  his  remote  ancestor  when  in  the 
night  he  rushed  the  herds  of  a  near-by  clan.  A  manufacturer 
tries  to  tell  a  conventional  world  that  he  resists  the  closed  shop 
because  it  is  un-American,  loses  him  money,  or  is  inefficient. 
A  few  years  ago  he  was  more  honest  when  he  said  he  would 
run  his  business  as  he  wished  and  would  allow  no  man  to  tell 
him  what  to  do.  His  instinct  of  leadership,  reinforced  power- 
fully by  his  innate  instinctive  revulsion  to  the  confinement  of  the 
closed  shop,  gave  the  true  stimulus.  His  opposition  is  psycho- 
logical, not  ethical. 

The  importance  to  me  of  the  description  of  the  innate  ten- 
dencies or  instincts  to  be  here  given  lies  in  their  relation  to  my 
main  explanation  of  economic  behavior,  which  is : 

1.  That  these  instinct  tendencies  are  persistent,  are  far  less 
warped  or  modified  by  the  environment  than  we  believe ;  that 
they  function  quite  as  they  have  for  a  hundred  thousand  years ; 
that  they,  as  motives  in  their  various  normal  or  perverted  habit 
form,  can  at  times  dominate  singly  the  entire  behavior  and  act 
as  if  they  were  a  clear  character  dominant. 

2.  That  if  the  environment  through  any  of  the  conventional 
instruments  of  repression — such  as  extreme  religious  orthodoxy, 
economic  inferiority,  imprisonment — or  physical  disfigurement — 


12  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

such  as  short  stature  or  a  crippled  body— repress  the  full  psycho- 
logical expression  in  the  field  of  the  instinct  tendencies,  then  a 
psychic  revolt,  a  slipping  into  abnormal  mental  functioning, 
takes  place,  with  the  usual  result  that  society  accuses  this  revolu- 
tionist of  being  either  wilfully  inefficient,  alcoholic,  a  syndicalist, 
supersensitive,  an  agnostic,  or  insane. 

Convention  has  judged  the  normal  man  in  economic  society 
to  be  that  individual  who  maintains  a  certain  business  placidity, 
is  solvent,  safe  and  not  irritating  to  the  delicate  structure  of 
credit.  Trotter,  the  English  social  psychologist,  has  said  that 
today's  current  normality  has  nothing  to  do  with  either  stability 
of  institutions  or  human  progress.  Its  single  important  char- 
acteristic is  that  it  is  conventional.  He  urges  the  imperative 
need  of  a  new  concept  of  economic  normality. 

Perhaps  one  should  stop  to  most  seriously  emphasize  this 
concept  of  a  new  human  normality,  and  also  to  appreciate  the 
handicap  to  discussion  which  comes  when  every  analyzer  at  a 
round  table  has  a  very  different  brand  of  human  normality  in 
mind.  There  is  that  theoretical  loo  per  cent  normality  which  is 
gained  for  the  individual  by  free  mobility  plus  a  full  and  fine 
environmental  equipment  of  persons  and  instruments,  and  which 
results  in  a  harmonious  and  full  expression  of  his  psychic  poten- 
tialities. Since  each  vigorous  life  lived  under  these  conditions 
would  generate  wisdom  in  direct  proportion  to  it,  I  think  that 
an  evolutionary  and  also  conventionally  desirable  progress  could 
be  prophesied  as  a  result.  This  progress  has  no  so-called  ideal- 
istic goal  or  direction.  It  has  merely  a  potentiality  for  more 
wisdom,  and  that  wisdom  might  lead  to  any  of  countless  possible 
developments. 

A  second  normality  would  be  that  produced  by  that  freedom 
in  instinct  expression  and  that  environment  which  would  give 
far  more  unconventional  experimentation,  far  more  wisdom 
than  we  now  have,  but  not  the  amount  which  would  crack  social 
life  by  hurrying  the  change  of  traditions  too  much,  or  destroy 
those  civilization  institutions  which  could  be  modified  with  some 
hope  of  their  higher  usefulness.  Conscious  that  man  will  change, 
if  he  is  to  change,  to  this  latter  compromise-normality  concept, 
it  is  such  a  normality  that  I  have  in  mind  when  I  use  the  term. 

If  normality  be  that  state  in  which  the  inherited  instinct-po- 
tentiality in  man  is  realized,  then  a  cataloguing  of  the  various 
instincts  would  be  an  invaluable  aid  in  constructive  social  an- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        13 

alysis.  Such  catalogues  exist  in  most  of  the  modern  psychologies 
and  social  psychologies  but  all  the  catalogues  differ  from  each 
other  in  kind  and  complexity.  James  and  Thorndike  give  man  a 
multitude  of  instincts,  Trotter  and  Sumner  Hmit  them  to  four, 
Brill  to  two,  hunger  and  sex.  A  more  important  disagreement 
between  instinct  theorists  is,  for  instance,  that  existing  between 
M'Dougall  and  Thorndike.  Thorndike  protests  against  sticking 
into  man's  permanent  psychic  equipment  any  sort  of  unit  char- 
acters, for  instance,  like  a  gregarious  urge  or  a  pugnacious  bent. 
He  claims  this  to  be  a  reversion  to  the  old  and  abandoned  scheme 
of  "moral  faculties."  Thorndike's  "instinct"  is  an  unlearned  and 
original  proclivity  to  react  in  a  certain  fixed,  simple  way,  par- 
ticular to  one  simple  stimulus.  Under  his  scheme  man's  instinct- 
acts  would  run  up  into  the  innumerable.  The  findings  of  fact 
and  the  hints  of  the  psychopathologists  seem  strongly  to  sub- 
stantiate Thorndike's  thesis.  However,  the  reflex  acts  used  by 
Thorndike  in  his  illustrations  of  instinct  behavior  group  them- 
selves more  or  less  naturally  under  sort  of  "faculty"  titles;  and 
it  seems  that  if  too  great  delicacy  of  application  be  not  de- 
manded a  tentative  and  useful  short  category  of  instincts,  sim- 
ilar to  M'Dougall's,  can  be  schemed.  The  list  which  I  shall  sug- 
gest is  an  attempted  harmonious  amalgamation  of  instinct  cate- 
gories which  seem  to  have  reasonably  withstood  criticism.  It  is 
an  effort  to  describe  certain  consistent  behavior  practices  in 
man,  the  appreciation  of  which  might  give  to  social  critics  added 
capacity  in  behavior  prophecy. 

The  following  catalogue  of  instincts  includes  those  motives 
to  conduct  which,  under  observation,  are  found  to  be  unlearned, 
are  universal  in  the  species,  and  which  must  be  used  to  explain 
the  innumerable  similarities  in  behavior,  detached  in  space  and 
time  from  each  other. 

I.  Instinct  of  gregariousness. — This  innate  tendency  is  ex- 
emplified in  two  ways.  Modern  economic  history  is  full  of  that 
strange  irrational  phenomenon,  "the  trek  to  the  city."  Even  in 
thinly  settled  Australia,  half  the  population  lives  in  a  few  great 
cities  on  the  coast.  In  South  America  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
this  same  abnormal  agglomeration  of  folk  has  taken  place.  The 
extraordinary  piling-up  of  labor  masses  in  modern  London, 
Berlin,  New  York,  Chicago,  has  created  cities  too  large  for 
economic  efficiency,  for  recreation  or  sanitation,  and  yet,  despite 
their  inefficiencies  and  the  food  and  fire  risk,   the  massing-up 


14  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

continues.  Factory  employment,  though  speeded  up  and  paid 
low  wages,  grows  popular  for  it  caters  to  gregariousness,  and 
domestic  service  is  shunned  for  it  is  a  lonely  job.  Huddle  and 
congestion  seem  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  modern 
city. 

The  second  exemplification  is  seen  in  man's  extreme  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  opinion  of  his  group — which  is  an  irrational 
gregarious  reflex.  This  instinct  is  the  psychic  basis  for  his  pro- 
clivity to  react  to  mob  suggestion  and  hysteria.  In  a  strike,  each 
striker  has  a  perfectly  biological  capacity  for  violence  if  the 
group  seems  to  will  it.  Because  of  this  same  gregariousness,  a 
panic  can  sweep  Wall  Street,  or  an  anti-pacifist  murmur  turn 
into  persecution  and  near-lynching.  The  crowd  members  find 
themselves  fatally  gripped  in  the  mob  drift,  they  press  forward 
willingly,  all  yell,  and  all  shake  fists  and  the  most  gentle  spirited 
will  find  himself  pulling  at  the  lynch  rope.  Royce  has  said,  "Woe 
to  the  societ}^  which  belittles  the  power  and  menace  of  the  mob 
mind."  The  lonely  sheep-herders  become  in  the  end  irrational, 
and  solitary  confinement  ends  in  insanity  or  submission. 

The  slavish  following  of  fashion  and  fads  is  rooted  in  gre- 
gariousness, and  the  most  important  marketing  problem  is  to 
guess  the  vagaries  of  desire  which  the  mob  spirit  may  select.  A 
great  crowd  or  festival  is  satisfying  for  its  own  sake.  The  in- 
stallation of  a  president  of  a  university,  needs  behind  the  rows 
of  intellectual  delegates  a  mass  of  mere  onlooking  humanity, 
and  it  gets  it  by  various  naive  maneuvers.  Crowds  seldom  dis- 
perse as  rapidly  as  they  might.  They  are  loath  to  destroy  their 
crowdishness,  and  therefore  irrationally  hang  about.  If  gregari- 
ousness should  weaken,  a  panic  would  seize  municipal  values, 
and  professional  baseball,  the  advertising  business,  and  world 
fairs  and  conventions  would  become  impossible. 

2.  Instinct  of  parental  bent:  motherly  behavior:  kindliness. — 
In  terms  of  sacrifice  this  is  the  most  powerful  of  all  instincts. 
This  instinct,  whose  main  concern  is  the  cherishing  of  the  young 
through  their  helpless  period,  is  strong  in  women  and  weak  in 
men.  The  confident  presence  in  economic  life  of  such  anti-child 
influences  as  the  saloons,  licensed  prostitution,  child  labor,  the 
police  control  of  juvenile  delinquency,  can  be  well  explained  by 
the  fact  that  political  control  has  been  an  inheritance  of  the 
socially  indifferent  male  sex.  The  coming  of  women  into  the 
franchise    promises    many    interesting    and    profound    economic 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        15 

changes.     What   little  conservation   exists   today  goes   back  to 
the  male  parental  instinct  for  its  rather  feeble  urge. 

The  disinterested  indignation  over  misery-provoking  acts 
which  comes  from  the  parental  instinct  is  the  base  stimulus  to 
law  and  order,  and  furnishes  the  nebulous  force  behind  such 
social  vagaries  as  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  the  Associated  Charities,  the 
movement  for  juvenile  courts,  prison  reform,  Belgian  relief,  the 
Child  Labor  League.  The  competitive  egotism  of  pecuniary  so- 
ciety has  stifled  the  habits  which  express  the  parental  bent.  We 
are  not  habituated  to  humanitarianism. 

3.  Instinct  of  curiosity:  manipulation:  workmanship. — 
Curiosity  and  its  attendant  desire  to  draw  near,  and  if  possible 
to  manipulate  the  curious  object,  are  almost  reflex  in  their  sim- 
plicity. Of  more  economic  applicability  is  the  innate  bent  toward 
workmanship.  Veblen  has  said  that  man  has  "a  taste  for  effec- 
tive w-ork,  and  a  distaste  for  futile  effort."  This  desire  and 
talent  that  man  has  to  mould  material  to  fancied  ends,  be  the 
material  clay  or  the  pawns  in  diplomacy,  explains  much  of 
human  activity,  while  wages  explain  little.  Prisoners  have  a 
horror  of  prison  idleness.  Clerks  drift  out  of  stereotyped  office 
w'ork,  and  the  monotony  of  modern  industrialism  has  created  a 
new  type  of  migratory  worker.  As  James  has  said.  "Construc- 
tiveness  is  a  genuine  and  irresistible  instinct  in  man  as  in  the  bee 
or  beaver."  Man  is  then  not  naturally  lazy,  but  innately  indus- 
trious. Where  laziness  exists  it  is  an  artificial  habit,  inculcated 
by  civilization.  Man  has  a  true  quality  sense  in  what  he  does : 
there  is,  then,  a  "dignity  of  labor,"  and  it  is  the  job  and  the  in- 
dustrial environment  that  produce  the  slacker,  and  not  the  la- 
borer's willful  disposition. 

4.  Instinct  of  acquisition:  collecting:  ownership. — Man  lusts 
for  land,  and  goes  eagerly  to  the  United  States,  to  South  Amer- 
ica, to  Africa  for  it.  It  is  the  real  basis  of  colonial  policy  and 
gives  much  of  the  interest  to  peace  parleys.  A  landless  pro- 
letariat is  an  uneasy,  thwarted  militant  proletariat.  The  cure 
for  unruly  Ireland  is  proven  to  be  peasant  proprietorship,  and 
the  social  menace  in  the  American  labor  world  is  the  homeless 
migratory  laborer.  Russian  peasants  revolted  for  land,  and  this 
is  the  single  consistent  note  in  the  anarchy  chaos  in  Mexico. 
Man,  much  of  the  time,  acquires  for  the  mere  sake  of  acquiring. 


i6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

A  business  man  is  never  rich  enough.  If,  however,  making 
more  money  uses  his  acquisitive  capacities  too  little,  he  may 
throvir  this  cultivated  habit-activity  into  acquiring  Van  Dykes  or 
bronzes  or  Greek  antiques,  or  on  a  smaller  and  less  aesthetic 
scale,  postage  stamps,  signatures,  or  shaving  mugs.  Asylums 
are  full  of  pitiful,  economic  persons  who,  lost  to  the  laws  of 
social  life,  continue  as  automatons  to  follow  an  unmodified  in- 
stinct in  picking  up  and  hoarding  pins,  leaves,  scraps  of  food, 
paper.  The  savings  banks  in  large  part  depend  on  this  inborn 
tendency  for  their  right  to  exist. 

5.  Instinct  of  fear  and  flight. — Man  has  the  capacity  to  be 
fearful  under  many  conditions.  His  most  important  fear  from 
an  economic  standpoint  is  the  stereotyped  worker's  or  business 
man's  worry  over  the  insecure  future.  This  anxiety  or  appre- 
hension which  is  so  plentiful  up  and  down  the  scale  of  economic 
life  has  a  profound  and  distressing  influence  on  the  digestive 
tract,  and  in  turn  on  the  general  health.  Much  of  nervous  indi- 
gestion so  common  in  the  ruthless  economic  competition  of  today 
is  "fear-indigestion,"  is  instinct  reaction,  and  can  only  be  cured 
by  removing  the  cause.  This  removal  of  the  cause  is  performed 
many  times  by  an  equally  instinctive  act,  flight.  Flight  in  busi- 
ness may  take  the  conventional  form  of  retirement  or  selling 
out,  but  often  adopts  the  unique  method  of  bankruptcy,  insanity, 
or  suicide. 

6.  Instinct  of  mental  activity :  thought. — To  quote  Thorn- 
dike  :  "This  potent  mover  [workmanship]  of  men's  economic 
and  recreated  activities  has  its  taproot  in  the  instinct  of  multi- 
form mental  and  physical  activity."  To  be  mentally  active,  to 
do  something,  is  instinctively  satisfying.  Much  of  invention 
springs  costless  from  a  mind  thinking  for  the  sheer  joy  of  it. 
Organization,  plans  in  industry,  schemes  for  market  extension, 
visions  of  ways  to  power,  all  agitate  neurones  in  the  brain 
ready  and  anxious  to  give  issue  in  thought.  A  duty  of  the  en- 
vironment is  not  only  to  allow,  but  to  encourage,  states  in  which 
meditation  naturally  occurs. 

7.  The  housing  or  settling  instinct. — In  its  simplest  form, 
the  gunny-sack  tents  of  the  tramps,  the  playhouses  of  children, 
the  camp  in  the  thicket  of  the  hunter.  The  squatter  has  a  dif- 
ferent feeling  for  his  quarter  section  when  he  has  a  dugout  on 
it.     Man  innately  wants  a  habitation  into  which  he  can  retire 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        17 

to  sleep  or  to  nurse  his  wounds,  phj'sical  or  social.     The  Eng- 
lishman's home  is  his  castle. 

8.  Instinct  of  migration :  homing. — To  every  man  the  com- 
ing of  spring  suggests  moving  on.  The  hobo  migration  begins 
promptly  with  the  first  sunshine,  and  the  tramp  instinct  fills 
Europe  with  questing  globe-trotters.  The  advice,  "Go  West, 
young  man,"  was  not  obeyed  on  account  of  the  pecuniary  gain 
alone,  but  because  the  venture  promised  satisfaction  to  the  in- 
stinct to  migrate  as  well. 

9.  Instinct  of  hunting. — Man  survived  in  earlier  ages 
through  destroying  his  rivals  and  killing  his  game,  and  these 
tendencies  bit  deep  into  his  psychic  make-up.  Modern  man  de- 
lights in  a  prize  fight  or  a  street  brawl,  even  at  times  joys  in  ill 
news  of  his  own  friends,  has  poorly  concealed  pleasure  if  his 
competition  wrecks  a  business  rival,  falls  easily  into  committing 
atrocities  if  conventional  policing  be  withdrawn,  kills  off  a  trade 
union,  and  is  an  always  possible  member  of  a  lynching  party. 
He  is  still  a  hunter  and  reverts  to  his  primordial  hunt  habits 
with  disconcerting  zest  and  expediency.  Historic  revivals  of  the 
hunting  urge  make  an  interesting  recital  of  religious  inquisitions, 
witch  burnings,  college  hazings,  persecution  of  suffragettes,  of 
the  I.  W.  W.,  of  the  Japanese,  or  pacifists.  All  this  goes  on 
often  under  naive  rationalization  about  justice  and  patriotism, 
but  it  is  pure  and  innate  lust  to  run  something  down  and  hurt  it. 

ID.  Instinct  of  anger:  pugnacity. — In  its  bodily  preparation 
for  action,  anger  is  identical  with  fear,  and  fear  constitutes  the 
most  violent  and  unreasoning  of  purposeful  dispositions  in  man. 
Caught  up  in  anger,  all  social  modifications  of  conduct  tend  to 
become  pale,  and  man  functions  in  primordial  attack  and  de- 
fense. Anger  and  its  resulting  pugnacity  have  as  their  most 
common  excitant  the  balking  or  thwarting  of  another  instinct, 
and  this  alone  explains  why  man  has  so  jealously,  through  all 
ages,  fought  for  liberty.  Pugnacity  is  the  very  prerequisite  of 
individual  progress.  Employers  fight  a  hampering  union,  unions 
a  dogmatic  employer;  every  imprisoned  man  is,  in  reality, 
psychically  incorrigible ;  students  rebel  against  an  autocratic 
teacher;  street  boys  gang  together  to  fight  a  bully;  nations  are 
ever  ready,  yes,  hoping,  to  fight,  and  their  memory  of  the  cost 
of  war  is  biologically  rendered  a  short  one.  In  fighting,  there 
is  a  subtle  reversion  to  the  primitive  standards,  and  early  atroci- 


i8  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

tics  become  the  trench  vogue  of  later  months.  Patriotism  with- 
out fighting  seems,  to  western  nations,  a  palHd  thing.  Alost  of 
the  vigorous  phases  of  modern  civilization  remain  highly  com- 
petitive and  warlike.  Ethics  has  a  long  psjchological  way  to  go 
in  its  vitally  necessary  task  of  sublimating  the  pugnacious  bent 
in  man. 

11.  Instinct  of  revolt  at  confinement:  at  being  limited  in 
liberty  of  action  and  choice. — As  above  noted,  man  revolts  vio- 
lently at  any  oppression,  be  it  of  body  or  soul.  Being  held  physi- 
cally helpless  produces  in  man  and  animals  such  profound  func- 
tional agitation  that  death  can  ensue.  Passive  resistance  to  war 
can  only  be  possible  when  nearly  all  of  man's  inherited  nature  is 
removed.  In  primitive  days,  being  held  was  immediately  ante- 
cedent to  being  eaten,  and  the  distaste  of  physical  helplessness  is 
accordingly  deepseated.  Belgium  would  rather  resist  than  live ; 
an  I.  W.  W.  would  rather  go  to  jail  than  come  meekly  off  his 
soap  box ;  the  militant  suffragettes  go  through  the  depravity  of 
forced  feeding  rather  than  suffer  their  inequality;  and  the 
worker  will  starve  his  family  to  gain  recognition  for  his  union. 
Man  will  die  for  liberty,  and  droops  in  prison.  So  physically 
revolting  is  confinement  that  the  alienists  have  been  forced  to 
create  a  new  disease,  a  "confinement  insanity,"  a  prison  psychosis. 

12.  Instinct  of  revulsion. — The  social  nausea  which  society 
feels  towards  discussions  of  sex,  venereal  disease,  leprosy,  cer- 
tain smells,  is  not  founded  on  willfulness.  It  is  a  non-intellec- 
tual and  innate  revulsion  to  the  subject.  It  is  only  within  the 
last  twentj^-five  years  that  scientific  attitude  itself  has  been  able 
to  overcome  this  instinctive  repugnance  and  attack  these  prob- 
lems, intimate  and  perilous  to  human  societj',  which  have  lan- 
guished under  the  taboo. 

13.  Instinct  of  leadership  and  mastery. — It  often  appears 
that  man  seeks  leadership  and  mastery  solely  because  their  ac- 
quisition places  him  in  a  better  position  to  gratify  his  other  in- 
stinctive promptings.  But  there  also  seems  a  special  gratification 
in  leading  and  mastery  for  their  own  sake.  Modern  life  shows 
prodigious  effort,  paid  only  in  the  state  of  being  a  boss  of  the 
gang,  a  "leading"  college  man,  a  "prominent  citizen,"  a  secre- 
tary or  a  vice-president,  a  militia  captain  or  a  church  elder.  A 
secret  ambition  to  some  day  lead  some  group  on  some  quest,  be 
it  ethical  or  economic,  is  planted  deep  in  our  nature.  Every  dog 
longs  to  have  his  day. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        19 

14.  Instinct  of  subordination :  submission. — In  contrast  to 
leadership,  man  longs  at  times  to  follow  the  fit  leader.  Soldiers 
joy  in  a  firm  captain,  workmen  quit  a  lax  though  philanthropic 
employer,  instructors  thresh  under  an  inefficient  though  indulgent 
department  head.  Eternal  independence  and  its  necessary  strife 
are  too  wearing  on  the  common  man  and  he  longs  for  peace  and 
protection  in  the  shadow  of  a  trust-inspiring  leader.  To  submit 
under  right  conditions  is  not  only  psychically  pleasant,  but  much 
of  the  time  to  be  leaderless  is  definitely  distressing. 

15.  Instinct  of  display :  vanity :  ostentation. — This  old  dis- 
position gives  the  basic  concept  for  Veblen's  remarkable  analysis 
of  the  economic  activities  of  America's  leisure  class.  The  par- 
ticular state  of  the  industrial  arts  with  its  trust  control  and 
divorce  of  producer  and  consumer,  plus  political  peace,  has 
taken  from  man  his  ancient  opportunity  to  show  his  unique 
gifts  in  ownership  of  economic  goods  and  in  valor.  So  he  is 
driven  in  his  yearning  for  attention  to  perverted  activities.  He 
lives  to  waste  conspicuously,  wantonly,  originally,  and,  by  the 
refined  uselessness  of  his  wasting,  to  show  to  the  gaping  world 
what  an  extraordinary  person  he  is.  The  sensitiveness  of  social 
matrons  to  mention  in  the  society  columns,  the  hysteria  to  be 
identified  with  the  changing  vagaries  of  the  style,  the  fear  of 
identification  with  drab  and  useful  livelihoods,  offer  in  their 
infinite  variety  a  multitude  of  important  economic  phenomena. 

16.  Instinct  of  sex. — Of  the  subjects  vital  to  an  analysis  of 
life,  be  they  aesthetic  or  economic,  sex  has  suffered  most  from 
the  revulsion  taboo.  Manifestly  an  instinct  which  moulds  be- 
havior and  purposeful  planning  profoundly,  sex  as  a  motive- 
concept  is  barred  from  the  economic  door.  Despite  the  proven 
moral  and  efficiency  problems  which  arise  with  the  postponement 
of  marriage  due  to  modern  economic  conditions,  the  massing  of 
unmarried  immigrant  men  into  tenement  rooms,  or  the  condemn- 
ing of  some  millions  of  migratory  workers  to  a  womanless  ex- 
istence, conventional  morality  meets  every  situation  by  denying 
the  sex  instinct,  b}^  a  blind  belief  that  in  some  strange  way 
modern  economic  civilization  allows  its  inmates  "to  mortify  the 
deeds  of  the  body." 

While  at  any  particular  moment  in  our  behavior  we  are  a 
blend  or  composite  of  many  instinct  activities,  it  is  accurate  to 
describe  much  of  behavior  as   dominated  at   any  one   time   by 


20  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

either  a  single  instinct  or  at  most  two  or  three.  A  certain  en- 
vironment can  habituate  man  to  a  specialization  in  gratification 
of  a  single  or  a  pair  of  instincts.  For  instance,  war  matures 
and  educates  habits  gratifying  the  instincts  of  pugnacity  and 
hunting.  At  the  war  front,  this  habit  bent  gives  basis  for  grad- 
ually sloughing  ofif  the  humane  restrictions  governing  the  fight- 
ing, and  armies  mutually  obey  their  new  psychology.  Machine- 
gun  men  know  they  will  not  be  taken  prisoner  and  their  service 
is  now  known  as  the  suicide  squad.  Hospitals  or  undefended 
towns  are  bombed,  a  very  conventional  minimum  of  attention  is 
fixed  for  the  enemy  wounded,  the  primitive  method  of  warfare 
of  the  French  African  troops  which  at  first  disturbed  the  ethics 
of  the  Allies  is  now  forgotten  under  the  more  liberal  interpreta- 
tion of  the  revamped  war  psychology.  At  home  the  citizens  of 
the  belligerent  countries  gain  a  cathartic  for  their  overstimulated 
pugnacious  bent  by  rioting  the  People's  Council,  or  tar-and- 
feathering  the  I.  W.  W.,  or  organizing  a  man-hunt  for  a  lately 
immigrated  Austrian  or  German.  It  is  quite  natural  that  the 
actors  in  these  domestic  dramas  should  build  up  explanatory 
rationalizations  for  their  activity.  It  is  their  mild  bow  to  the 
fast  dimming  conventions  and  traditions  of  peace.  As  a  gentle 
and  aged  lady  deplored,  "I  cannot  fight,  but  I  can  at  least  go 
about  and  listen  and  report  on  the  unpatriotic." 

The  tongue-tied  and  paralyzed  after-dinner  speaker  is  a 
singleminded  expositor  of  the  strange  instinct  of  subservience. 
The  worried  father  of  a  sick  child  seated  at  his  office  desk  is 
not  an  economic  man.  His  behavior  is  dominated  by  the  paren- 
tal motive,  and  in  this  fact  is  found  the  only  explanation  of  his 
distracted  conduct.  Veblen  in  a  shrewd  analysis  of  industrial 
evolution  noted  that  the  early  pre-capitalistic  culture,  with  its 
handicraft  production  and  small  intimate  social  groups,  stressed 
the  habits  which  express  the  instinct  of  workmanship  and  the 
parental  instinct.  With  the  industrial  revolution  and  the  im- 
mergence  into  the  pecuniary  scheme  of  things  of  a  small  prop- 
erty-owning class  and  a  large  proletariat,  life  presented  habit 
opportunities  which  stressed,  in  the  master  class,  the  so-called 
egotistical  instincts  of  leadership,  hunting,  ostentation  and  van- 
ity, and  for  the  working  class  removed  the  opportunities  to 
express  the  instinct  of  workmanship  and  reduced  and  restricted 
the  other  avenues  of  expression  or  perverted  them  to  non-evolu- 
tionary or  anti-social  behavior.     Instinct  perversion  rather  than 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       21 

freely  selected  habits  of  instinct  expression  seems  broadly  a 
just  characterization  of  modern  laborclass  life.  Modern  labor 
unrest  has  a  basis  more  psychopathological  than  psychological, 
and  it  seems  accurate  to  describe  modern  industrialism  as 
mentally  insanitary. 

A  remarkable  analysis  of  instinct  dominance  over  behavior  is 
illustrated  by  the  experiments  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School 
and  described  by  Professor  Cannon.  He  notes  that  among  the 
instinct  emotions  active  in  man  those  which  are  identified  with 
a  physical  struggle  for  existence  have  both  a  physical  and 
mechanical  authority  over  all  other  instinct  urges  to  conduct. 
Like  the  military  general  stafif,  they  shoulder  aside,  in  times  of 
stress,  the  aesthetic  and  peaceful  enthusiasms  and  mobilize  every 
mental  and  physical  efficiency  to  their  war  purpose.  The  central 
nervous  system  is  divided  by  Cannon  into  three  parts,  all  of 
which,  under  peace,  function  normally.  If,  however,  the  brain 
be  stimulated  to  fear  or  anger,  one  of  these  parts,  the  so-called 
"sympathetic  part,"  becomes  the  dictator.  Its  particular  nerve 
fibers  are,  of  the  three  parts,  by  far  the  most  extensive  in  their 
distribution,  and  permit  immediate  mobilization  of  the  entire 
body.  Its  mobiUzation  consists  in  "secession  of  processes  in  the 
alimentary  canal,  thus  freeing  the  energy  supplied  for  other 
parts,  the  shifting  of  blood  from  the  abdominal  organs  whose 
activities  are  deferable  to  the  organs  immediately  essential  to 
muscular  exertion  (the  lungs,  the  heart,  the  central  nervous 
system),  the  increased  vigor  of  contraction  of  the  heart,  the 
quick  abolition  of  the  effects  of  muscular  fatigue,  the  mobilizing 
of  energy-giving  sugar  in  the  circulation — every  one  of  these 
visceral  changes  is  directly  serviceable  in  making  the  organism 
more  effective  in  the  violent  display  of  energy  which  fear  or 
rage  or  pain  may  involve." 

But  the  most  unique  war-footing  activity  of  the  body  in  this 
vigorous  preparedness  is  the  functioning  of  the  adrenal  gland. 
To  use  Cannon's  words:  "Adrenin,  secreted  by  the  adrenal 
glands,  in  time  of  stress  or  danger,  plays  an  essential  role  in 
flooding  the  blood  with  sugar,  distributes  the  blood  to  the  heart, 
lungs,  central  nervous  system  and  limbs,  takes  it  away  from  the 
inhibited  organs  of  the  abdomen,  quickly  abolishes  muscular 
fatigue  and  coagulates  the  blood  on  injury.  These  remarkable 
facts  are  furthermore  associated  with  some  of  the  most  primi- 
tive  experiences   in   the   Hfe   of   the   higher   organisms,   experi- 


22  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

cnces  common  to  man  and  beast — the  elemental  experiences  o£ 
pain  and  fear  and  rage  that  come  suddenly  in  critical  emer- 
gencies." 

The  conclusion  seems  both  scientific  and  logical  that  behavior 
in  anger,  fear,  pain,  and  hunger  is  a  basically  different  behavior 
from  the  behavior  under  repose  and  economic  securit}-.  The 
emotions  generated  under  the  conditions  of  existence-peril  seem 
to  make  the  emotions  and  motives  generative  in  quiet  and  peace, 
pale  and  unequal.  It  seems  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion 
that  the  most  vital  part  of  man's  inheritance  is  one  which 
destines  him  to  continue  for  some  myriads  of  years  ever  a  fight- 
ing animal  when  certain  conditions  exist  in  his  environment. 
Though,  through  education,  man  be  habituated  in  social  and  in- 
telligent behavior,  or,  through  license,  in  sexual  debauchery,  still 
at  those  times  when  his  life  or  liberty  is  threatened,  his  instinct- 
emotional  nature  will  inhibit  cither  social  thought  or  sex  ideas, 
and  present  him  as  merely  an  irrational  fighting  animal. 

Since  every  instinct  inherited  by  man  from  his  tree  and  cave 
ancestors,  literally  sewed  into  his  motivating  disposition,  has 
survival  value,  an  environment  which  balks  or  thwarts  his  in- 
stinct expression,  arouses  directly  and  according  to  the  degree  of 
its  menace  this  unreasoning  emotional- revolt  in  him.  The  chem- 
ical proof  of  this  emotional  revolt  is  found  by  Cannon  even  in 
individuals  suffering  from  vague  states  of  worry  or  anxiety. 
Here  the  single  problem  is  the  manner  in  which  the  angry  or 
fearful  person  coins  his  revolt  emotion  into  behavior,  and  this 
largely  depends  upon  the  right  and  proper  method  which  society 
has  selected  for  expressing  psychical  dissatisfaction.  There  are 
folk  ways  of  distress  behavior  just  as  certainly  as  there  are  of 
religious  enthusiasm  or  patriotism.  Since  the  emotional  tone 
stimulated  by  the  balking  of  "minor"  instincts  would  naturally 
be  lower  than  that  intense  tone  generated  by  a  threatened  rend- 
ing of  one's  flesh,  or  imprisonment,  to  the  same  degree  is  the 
behavior  stimulated  by  the  lower-toned  emotions  less  vivid  and 
noteworthy  than  the  blind  and  frantic  resistance  to  the  direct 
physical  threat.  The  behavior  reflex  to  the  emotions  generated 
in  a  state  of  worry,  anxiety,  economic  servility,  or  personal 
humiliation,  instead  of  expressing  itself  in  violent  revolt,  is 
shown  in  states  of  mental  inertia,  loss  of  interest  and  power  of 
attention,  labor  inefficiency,  drifting  off  the  job,  drink  and  drugs. 
These  behavior  states  which  under  conventional  and  economic 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        23 

moral  theorizing  are  barrenly  and  inaccurately  described  as  will- 
ful acts  are  elemental,  irrational,  and  blind  reflex  activities.  Un- 
der conditions  which  allow  the  satisfactory  expression  of  man's 
original  inherited  proclivities,  this  warlike  specialization  of  the 
mind  and  body  is  avoided.  There  the  canial  or  sacral  sections 
of  the  peace-footing  "automatic"  section  divide  with  the  warlike 
"sympathetic"  section  the  authority  over  the  body.  Health  and 
nerve  reserve  are  built  up,  a  quiet  brain  permits  rational  order- 
ings  of  the  associations  of  the  mind,  social  behavior  habits  can 
influence  the  order  and  connections  of  the  neurones  and  insure 
their  perpetuation ;  in  short,  intellectual  progress  becomes  pos- 
sible. 

The  instincts  and  their  emotions,  coupled  with  the  obedient 
body,  lay  down  in  scientific  and  exact  description  the  motives 
which  must  and  will  determine  human  conduct.  If  a  physical 
environment  set  itself  against  the  expression  of  these  instinct 
motives,  the  human  organism  is  fully  and  efficiently  prepared  for 
a  tenacious  and  destructive  revolt  against  this  environment ;  and 
if  the  antagonism  persists,  the  organism  is  ready  to  destroy  itself 
and  disappear  as  a  species  if  it  fails  of  a  psychical  mutation 
which  would  make  the  perverted  order  endurable. 

Even  if  labor-class  children  evade  those  repressive  deport- 
ment traditions  that  characterize  the  life  of  the  middle-class 
young,  at  a  later  date  in  the  life  of  these  working-class  members 
certain  powerful  forces  in  their  environment,  though  they  work 
on  the  less  susceptible  and  less  plastic  natures  of  mature  in- 
dividuals, produce  obsessions  and  thwartings  which  function  at 
times,  exclusively  almost,  in  determining  the  behavior  of  great 
classes  of  the  industrial  population.  The  powerful  forces  of 
the  working-class  environment  which  thwart  and  balk  instinct 
expression  are  suggested  in  the  phrases  "monotonous  work," 
"dirty  work,"  "simplified  work,"  "mechanical  work,"  the  "servile 
place  of  labor,"  "insecure  tenure  of  the  job,"  "hire  and  fire," 
"winter  unemployment,"  "the  ever  found  union  of  the  poor  dis- 
trict with  the  crime  district,"  and  the  "restricted  district  of 
prostitution,"  the  "open  shop,"  the  "labor  turnover,"  "poverty," 
the  "bread  lines,"  the  "scrap  heap,"  "destitution."  If  we  postu- 
late some  sixteen  instinct  unit  characters  which  are  present  un- 
der the  laborer's  blouse  and  insistently  demand  the  same  grati- 
fication that  Is,  with  painful  care,  planned  for  the  college  student, 
in  just  what  kind  of  perverted  compensations  must  a  laborer  in- 


24  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

dulge  to  make  endurable  his  existence?  A  western  hobo  tries  in 
a  more  or  less  frenzied  way  to  compensate  for  a  general  all- 
embracing  thwarting  of  his  nature  by  a  wonderful  concentra- 
tion of  sublimation  activities  on  the  wander  instinct.  The 
monotony,  indignity,  dirt,  and  sexual  apologies  of,  for  instance, 
the  unskilled  worker's  life  bring  their  definite  fixations,  their 
definite  irrational,   inferiority  obsessions. 

The  balked  laborer  here  follows  one  of  the  two  described 
lines  of  conduct:  (i)  he  either  weakens,  becomes  inefficient, 
drifts  away,  loses  interest  in  the  quality  of  his  work,  drinks, 
deserts  his  family;  or  (2)  he  indulges  in  a  true  type  inferiority 
compensation,  and  in  order  to  dignify  himself,  to  eliminate  for 
himself  his  inferiority  in  his  own  eyes,  he  strikes  or  brings  on  a 
strike;  he  commits  violence,  or  he  stajs  on  the  job  and  injures 
machinery,  or  mutilates  the  materials.  He  is  fit  food  for  dyna- 
mite conspiracies.  He  is  ready  to  make  sabotage  a  part  of  his 
regular  habit  scheme.  His  condition  is  one  of  mental  stress  and 
unfocused  psychic  unrest,  and  could  in  all  accuracy  be  called  a 
definite  industrial  psychosis.  He  is  neither  willful  nor  responsi- 
ble, he  is  suffering  from  a  stereotyped  mental  disease. 

li  one  leaves  the  strata  of  unskilled  labor  and  investigates 
the  higher  economic  classes,  he  finds  parallel  conditions.  There 
is  a  profound  unrest  and  strong  migratory  tendency  among  de- 
partment-store employees.  One  New  York  store  with  less  than 
three  thousand  emploj'ees  has  thirteen  thousand  pass  through  its 
employ  in  a  year.  Since  the  establishment  in  American  life  of 
big  business  with  its  extensive  efficiency  systems,  its  order  and 
dehumanized  discipline,  its  caste  system,  as  it  were,  there  has  de- 
veloped among  its  highly  paid  men  a  persistent  unrest,  a  dis- 
satisfaction and  decay  of  morale  which  is  so  noticeable  and 
costly  that  it  has  received  repeated  attention.  Even  the  conven- 
tional competitive  efficiency  of  American  business  is  in  grave 
question.  I  suggest  that  this  unrest  is  a  true  revolt  psj'chosis, 
a  definite  mental  unbalance,  an  efficiency  psj^chosis,  as  it  were, 
and  has  its  definite  psychic  antecedents;  and  that  our  present 
moralizing  and  guess-solutions  are  both  hopeless  and  ludicrous. 

The  dynamic  psychology  of  today  describes  the  present  civil- 
ization as  a  repressive  environment.  For  a  great  number  of  its 
inhabitants,  a  sufficient  self-expression  is  denied.  There  is  for 
those  who  care  to  see,  a  deep  and  growing  unrest  and  pessimism. 
With  the  increase  in  knowledge  is  coming  a  new  realization  of 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        25 

the  irrational  direction  of  economic  evolution.  The  economists, 
however,  view  economic  inequality  and  life  degradation  as  ob- 
jects, in  truth,  outside  the  science.  'Our  value  concept  is  a  price 
mechanism  hiding  behind  a  phrase.  If  we  are  to  play  a  part  in 
the  social  readjustment  immediately  ahead,  we  must  put  human 
nature  and  human  motives  into  our  basic  hypotheses.  Our  value 
concept  must  be  the  yardstick  to  measure  just  how  fully  things 
and  institutions  contribute  to  a  full  psychological  life.  We  must 
know  more  of  the  meaning  of  progress.  The  domination  of 
society  by  one  economic  class  has  for  its  chief  evil  the  thwarting 
of  the  instinct  life  of  the  subordinate  class  and  the  perversion 
of  the  upper  class.  The  extent  and  characteristics  of  this  evil 
are  only  to  be  estimated  when  we  know  the  innate  potentialities 
and  inherited  propensities  of  man,  and  the  ordering  of  this 
knowledge  and  its  application  to  the  changeable  economic  struc- 
ture is  the  task  before  the  trained  economists  today. 


THE  HUMAN  FACTOR* 

The  business  of  an  engineer  is  to  deal  objectively  with  ma- 
terial problems;  his  training  consists  in  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge to  this  end.  Curiously  enough,  the  subject  of  labor  is  later 
to  become  almost  the  dominant  and  possibly  the  most  trouble- 
some of  all  his  cares.  Starting  with  a  belief  that  his  main  object 
is  the  production  of  mechanism  from  material,  he  finds  that,  as 
time  passes,  he  is  much  more  concerned  with  finance,  labor  and 
the  human  factor — commercial  or  manual.  He  becomes  more 
an  administrator  than  a  technical  executive,  realizes  that  selec- 
tion of  subordinates  and  the  will  to  work  of  his  staff — both 
psychological  problems — are  more  potent  matters  even  than  or- 
ganization and  purchase  of  material.  Human  muscle — that  is, 
its  external  appearance — is  easily  viewed,  but  the  intelligence  and 
capacity  which,  after  all,  animate  it,  are  not  so  readily  assessed. 
Capital  and  labor  associated  with  system  and  organization — the 
marriage  of  credit  and  muscle — is  too  often  superficially  as- 
sumed to  be  a  profit-making  copartnership.  It  seems  a  usual 
view  that  provided  sufficient  of  either  is  available,  there  should 
be  little  difficulty  in  earning  dividends.  The  human  factor,  how- 
ever, permeates  the  entire  structure,  and  unless  duly  assessed  and 
rightly  placed,  the  anticipated  profits  may  vanish  unaccountably 

>  From  Engineering  (London).     104:443-4.     October  26,   igi;- 


26  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

into  thin  air.  It  is  too  little  realized  that  while  share  capital  is 
definite,  each  human  unit  is  a  separate  personal  identity  af- 
flicted thereby  with  common  human  disabilities. 

In  actual  practice  there  is  only  one  penalty  for  failure  or  in- 
fraction of  discipline — dismissal.  On  the  other  hand,  no  firm 
can  afford  for  trivial  cause  to  deprive  itself  of  the  services  of  a 
potential  profit-earner;  it  would  suffer  a  greater  loss  than  that 
immediately  realized,  as  change  disturbs  the  poise  and  balance 
of  the  machine.  The  power  of  inflicting  the  extreme  penalty  is 
therefore  more  or  less  judicially  exercised;  first  thought  is  often 
tempered  with  discretion.  The  outcome  is  that  the  two  things — 
power  and  penalty — tend  to  equate  each  other.  The  man  is 
kept  in  check  by  knowledge  of  the  penalty,  the  management, 
knowing  the  difficulty  of  adequate  replacement,  is  none  too  ready 
to  use  its  privilege.  Fear  on  both  sides  helps  to  keep  each 
virtuous. 

Technical  troubles  are  apt  to  cause  less  serious  problems  than 
the  human  factor.  It  is  an  incomparable  asset  to  be  able  with- 
out resentment  to  get  the  most  out  of  a  working  force ;  to  pos- 
sess the  knack  of  so  doing  is  not  a  common  quality.  To  diagnose 
the  slacker  ma}'  be  easy,  to  understand  why  he  slacks  not  so 
simple,  to  apply  the  correct  remedy  more  difficult  still.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  a  policy  of  bluff  or  of  blackguardism  is  as  likelj' 
to  be  wrong  as  continuous  nagging  or  fault-finding.  To  handle 
an  awkward  case  by  tact  and  firmness,  by  the  hand  of  steel  in 
the  glove  of  velvet,  requires  experience  no  less  than  natural  abil- 
ity. Some  men  possess  this  happy  faculty,  which  keeps  a  sore 
place  from  rankling.  To  drop  heavily  on  the  wrong  man,  or  for 
the  wrong  matter  in  the  wrong  way,  displays  a  want  of  judicial 
insight  and  is  fraught  with  perilous  results  to  output.  A  man 
flagrantly  caught  out  will  suffer  remarks  and  feel  their  caustic 
justice  without  subsequent  resentment.  To  use  the  same  method 
for  purety  accidental  fault  is  to  invite  shrinking.  We  are,  after 
all,  each  a  member  of  a  common  human  family,  and  whatever 
station  we  occupy  our  feelings  are  roughly  equal.  Any  method 
whereby  effort  is  induced  is  an  end  in  itself  worth  considera- 
tion and  some  thought. 

In  normal  times  men  often  are  hired,  tried,  and  fired,  at  the 
wanton  caprice  of  a  technically  capable  but  otherwise  ill- 
equipped  individual,  because  an  excess  supply  of  labor  is  avail- 
able.    With  a  restricted  supply  an  explanation  of  the  touchiness 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        27 

of  labor  complained  of  just  now  in  some  quarters  is  afforded. 
The  men  are  not  rightly  handled.  To  keep  a  large  staff  working 
harmoniously  to  a  single  end  demands  administrative  ability  of 
a  high  order.  Judicious  and  just  handling  is  of  prime  im- 
portance, the  appearance  of  injustice,  no  less  than  a  flagrant 
case  of  it,  must  be  strictlj'  avoided. 

Profit-making  is  the  cream  on  the  milk  of  industry,  it  repre- 
sents only  a  fraction  of  the  bulk  turnover,  and  it  may  be  for- 
feited in  many  ways.  System  and  organization  is  one  part  of 
the  profit-earning  mechanism,  the  correct  handling  of  labor  and 
its  incitement  to  real  effort  are  quite  as  important  and  not  so 
apparent.  To  reach  the  desired  end  needs  a  judicial  tempera- 
ment coupled  to  an  endowment  of  common-sense,  scientific 
spirit  and  a  frank  recognition  of  labor's  human  structure. 

There  are  productive  and  unproductive  periods  in  each  work- 
ing day,  alternations  of  normal  effort  and  natural  slackness.  It 
is  the  dead  centers  which  want  attention,  not  the  time  of  full 
crank  effort.  Conditions  and  environment  have  much  to  do 
with  output.  A  difference  of  10  degrees  in  temperature  unrecti- 
fied  will  produce  remarkable  results.  Fresh  air  and  light,  the 
former  costing  nothing,  do  much  to  affect  the  total  output.  The 
human  dislike  of  sheer  monotony,  its  desire  for  rational  change, 
are  other  questions  for  consideration.  Piecework  is  one  incen- 
tive, sheer  interest  in  the  job  in  hand  another.  If  the  shop  rec- 
ognize in  its  chief  an  able  man,  competent  and  efficient,  the 
results  will  exceed  those  under  the  reverse  conditions  where 
and  when  they  operate.  Example  does  more  than  driving,  as 
shown  in  the  success  achieved  in  many  small  concerns. 

Production  is  a  delicately-poised  balance  dependent  upon 
quite  small  things,  which  in  the  aggregate  are  apt  to  turn  the 
scale.  Labor  is  generallj^  found  to  be  more  troublesome  where 
the  supply  is  strictly  limited;  then  the  necessity  for  right  hand- 
ling is  more  acute,  and  as  a  consequence  the  result  is  usually 
better  and  the  staff  more  satisfied.  The  inevitable  result  of 
scarcity  is  an  increase  in  realized  value ;  reduced  supply  may 
result  in  insubordination  or,  if  the  firm  is  wise,  in  improved 
conditions  and  better  treatment.  The  intimate  relation  of 
isolated  factorj^,  scarcity  of  labor  and  welfare  schemes  point 
their  own  moral.  The  worst  industrial  conditions  are  found  in 
large  centers,  where  both  man  and  management  have  a  greater 
available  choice.     The  necessity  for  better  conditions  is  less  ap- 


28  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

parent  and  certainly  less  realized.  Labor  trouble  points  to  a 
lack  of  visualization  on  the  part  of  the  management,  to  the  de- 
sire on  the  part  of  the  man  to  pick  and  choose,  that  is,  to  find  an 
open  market  for  his  skill,  or  to  injudicious  handling,  pointing 
to  faulty  executive. 

Belief  on  the  part  of  the  man  that  he  will  meet  with  ra- 
tional justice  from  his  employer  who,  he  feels,  is  human  and 
personally  interested  in  his  work,  tends  to  retain  skill  and  com- 
petency, even  when  offered  better  terms  elsewhere.  More  than 
'one  highly  qualified  producer  has  failed  because  of  his  inabilitj' 
to  understand  men  other  than  as  numerals  or  portions  of  an  es- 
sential mechanism.  Exploitation  or  unfair  treatment,  or  possi- 
bly dismissal  for  small  reason  in  the  case  of  a  single  individual, 
shakes  the  confidence  of  the  rest;  the  coordination  of  a  labor 
force  and  their  dependence  in  daily  work  one  on  another  lend 
fatal  prominence  to  a  seemingly  minor  issue.  A  small  grievance 
is  like  a  gear  wheel  with  a  damaged  tooth,  which  disturbs  the 
smooth  running  of  the  train.  The  hostility  and  independence 
shown  in  labor  troubles,  the  divorce  of  the  men  from  the  inter- 
ests common  to  the  firm  as  a  whole,  have  been  at  least  partly 
made  and  fostered  by  such  causes.  Confidence  once  lost  is  not 
easily  restored.  Like  reputation,  it  represents  a  solid  asset,  and 
any  effort  to  engender  more  cordial  relations  is  worth  the  mak- 
ing, while  the  result  is  likely  to  be  more  beneficial  than  is  often 
realized  and  well  worth  the  trouble  involved. 


HUMANIZING  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF 
INDUSTRY' 

The  relation  between  capital  and  labor  is,  of  course,  to  a 
large  extent  an  economic  question,  but  it  is  also  just  as  much  a 
human  question,  and  there  is  no  more  important  and  interesting 
problem  to  be  solved  in  the  coming  years  than  the  daily  relation 
of  the  management  to  its  employees. 

One  important  effect  of  large  scale  production  is  that  plants 
in  industry  where  such  production  exists  are  no  longer  man- 
aged and  operated  by  laymen  of  broad  business  training  and 
experience  but  instead  they  are  operated  by  technically  equipped 
managers — ^men  that  have  a  specialized  professional  training. 

1  From  an  address  by  Sam  A.  Lewisohn,  Treasurer,  Miami  Copper  Co. 
Meeting  of  the  Academy  of  Political  Science,  N.  Y.  City.  Friday,  Decem- 
ber 6,   19 18. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        29 

It  is  with  these  men  that  the  handling  of  the  labor  problem 
in  such  industries  finally  rests.  They  are  in  the  "key  positions." 
As  a  consequence,  there  has  been  a  good  deal  o£  talk  of  absentee 
landlordism — a  good  deal  of  criticism  of  the  fact  that  the  real 
owners  of  the  property — the  stockholders,  whether  they  be  a  few 
holders  of  large  blocks  of  stocks  or  a  large  number  of  small 
holders^are  apt  to  be  out  of  touch  with  the  details  of  plant 
management  and  the  charge  has  been  raised  that  the  directors 
are  solely  interested  in  finance. 

Analogies  have  been  drawn  to  the  conditions  that  prevailed 
in  subject  provinces  of  ancient  empires — the  word  "feudal"  has 
been  used  to  describe  conditions.  I  am  rather  inclined  to  think, 
however,  that  these  analogies  have  carried  us  somewhat  astray 
and  that  our  attention  has  been  diverted  from  the  root  of  the 
problem  by  this  tendency  to  treat  these  questions  in  too  melo- 
dramatic a  fashion.  To  use  a  phrase  of  Grover  Cleveland's  "it 
is  a  condition  which  confronts  us,  not  a  theory."  The  condi- 
tion is,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  us,  a  corollary  of  modern  in- 
dustrial specialization.  The  directors  are  in  charge  of  finance 
because  this  is  their  specialty,  and  they  do  not  interfere  in  labor 
problems  any  more  than  they  interfere  in  technical  problems.  It 
is  not  because  of  any  lack  of  human  sj'mpathy  or  understanding 
on  their  part  but  rather  because  such  specialization  seems  best 
for  effective  administration.  Even  if  they  have  the  inclination, 
training  and  sympathy  and  time  to  study  the  labor  problems,  the 
owners  and  directors  will  in  most  cases  feel  it  is  wise  not  to 
interfere  with  the  work  of  the  manager  in  charge,  because  the 
local  labor  problems  are  so  interwoven  with  the  daily  routine  of 
other  operating  problems  that  they  have  not  the  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  nuances  of  situations  that  warrants  them  in  such 
interference.,  They  have  to  rely  on  their  managers  for  the 
facts  of  any  situation  and  so  while  they  can  exercise  much  in- 
fluence, and  a  good  influence,  in  guiding  general  policies,  it 
rests  with  the  managers  to  apply  these  policies.  There  will  be 
many  exceptions  where  an  active  conscience  will  impel  and  con- 
ditions will  permit  a  director  or  oAvner  to  interfere,  but  it  is 
dangerous  to  rely  on  exceptions..  And  so  after  all  the  manager 
is  the  pivotal  individual  upon  whom  the  modernization  of  the 
day  to  day  relations  between  capital  and  labor  depends.  No 
matter  how  sjonpathetic  the  amateur  on  top  may  be  to  a  liberal 
labor  policy,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  carry  it  out  unless  the 


30  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

technically  equipped  manager  himself  has  the  same  point  of 
view  and  understanding  of  the  problem.  A  solution  has  been 
sought  in  the  introduction  of  the  new  profession  of  employ- 
ment manager,  but  though  this  is  an  admirable  development — a 
very  big  step  in  the  right  direction — it  is  not  in  itself  a  solution 
of  the  problem'.  Unless  the  general  manager  in  charge  of  the 
entire  plant  has  the  background  to  make  him  sympathetic  to 
modernization  in  the  methods  of  handling  labor  at  his  plant — 
unless  he  is  sufificiently  mature  in  his  outlook  to  realize  that  the 
handling  of  labor  is  a  specialty  and  will  thus  be  sympathetic  to 
the  introduction  of  a  particular  department  for  handling  these 
problems — he  will  and  can  block  any  such  attempt  at  a  modern 
scientific  approach.  For  the  management  of  the  plan  is  in  his 
hands — he  is  the  "boss"  and  the  methods  of  the  operation  of  the 
plant  must  ultimately  be  under  his  direction  and  limited  by  his 
understanding.  Even  after  a  distinct  department  under  an  em- 
ployment manager  has  been  set  up,  the  larger  policies  will  de- 
pend on  his  final  decision. 

This  points  to  the  need  of  introducing  into  the  curriculum 
of  every  technical  institution  for  those  students  who  by  any  pos- 
sibility may  in  later  life  have  charge  of  men,  thorough  courses 
in  sociology  and  in  the  modern  technique  and  methods  of  hand- 
ling labor.  Such  courses  should  be  "required"  and  should  be 
thoroughly  understood  to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  training  of 
the  students.  Technical  schools  have  too  often  lacked  the  in- 
clusion of  such  courses — even  as  "optional"  courses.  Many- 
technical  men  in  the  rush  to  earn  a  living  do  not  get  any  broad 
humanizing  courses  at  academic  schools.  As  a  consequence  they 
have  not  even  a  meagre  sociological  background  and  nothing  is 
done  to  make  up  this  lack  in  their  technical  training  with  the 
result,  that  though  they  may  be  turned  out  thoroughly  competent 
as  far  as  their  technical  qualifications  are  concerned,  they  are 
left  naive  in  their  approach  to  the  human  problems  involved  in 
their  future  profession.  Particularly  in  the  mining  field  there 
is  abundant  testimony,  as  to  the  unskillfulness  of  young  technical 
graduates  in  attempting  to  handle  men,  though  of  course  there 
are  notable  exceptions.  When  put  in  charge  of  plants  such  men 
resist  the  introduction  of  modern  methods  in  handling  labor  and 
even  though  they  finally  consent  to  an  employment  manager 
being  put  in  charge,  they  do  not  give  him  the  proper  support  or 
encouragement  and  are  inclined  to  be  obstructive.     In  any  event, 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        31 

even  if  they  are  willing,  it  is  difficult  for  them  to  cooperate 
intelligently.  The  following  excerpts  from  the  report  of  the 
President's  Mediation  Commission  are  significant: 

"The  resident  management  ...  is  wholly  traditional  in  its  effect, 
however  sincere  in  its  purpose.  The  managers  fail  to  understand  and 
reach  the  mind  and  heart  of  labor  because  they  have  not  the  aptitude  or 
the  training  or  the  time  for  wise  dealing  with  the  problems  of  industrial 
relationship.  The  managers  are  technical  men,  .  .  .  engineers  of  knowl- 
edge and  skill  ...  it  has  hardly  begun  to  be  realized  that  labor  questions 
call  for  the  same  systematic  attention  and  understanding  and  skill  as  do 
engineering  problems." 

Many  of  us  hope  that  it  will  not  be  long  before  those  re- 
sponsible for  planning  the  curricula  of  technical  schools  will 
take  cognizance  of  the  situation.  We  believe  it  deserves  their 
most  serious  attention.  May  I  also  suggest  that  it  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  that  where  such  courses  in  industrial  train- 
ing are  introduced,  they  be  not  treated  by  either  faculty  or 
students  as  fads  but  as  very  practical  and  essential  parts  of  the 
students'  preparation.  Those  of  us  who  are  employers  can  give 
positive  assurance  that  such  an  addition  to  the  equipment  of 
graduates  will  have  definite  value  to  them  in  dollars  and  cents. 
But  what  is  of  more  importance  is  that  the  attention  of  the 
faculty  of  our  technical  schools  to  this  matter  would  mean 
much  in  the  modernization  of  the  handling  of  our  labor  problem. 

Above  all  let  it  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  subject  is  not  a 
technical  problem  but  a  human  one.  Not  only  the  mind  but 
also  the  heart  of  the  prospective  manager  should  be  trained  and 
he  should  be  imbued  with  a  thoroughly  human  and  liberal  at- 
titude. Only  thus  will  he  be  able  to  understand  and  reach  the 
heart  as  well  as  the  mind  of  labor. 


AIMS  OF  THE  NEW  SCIENCE 

THE  NEW  PROFESSION  OF  HANDLING  MEN  * 

For  more  than  eight  years  a  new  type  of  association  deaHng 
with  the  problems  of  hiring  and  developing  employees  has  been  at 
work  in  Boston.  During  191 1,  the  Vocation  Bureau  of  Boston 
invited  fifty  men,  who  had  in  charge  the  hiring  of  employees  in 
large  shops  and  stores  of  the  city  and  vicinity',  to  come  together 
and  consider  the  advisability  of  meeting  regularly.  As  a  re- 
sult, the  Employment  Managers'  Association  was  started. 

The  aims  of  this  association  are  described  as  follows  in  the 
constitution : 

To   discuss  problems  of  employees;     their  training  and  their  efficiency. 

To  compare  experiences  which  shall  throw  light  on  the  failures  and 
successes   in    conducting   the    employment    department. 

To  invite  experts  or  other  persons  who  have  knowledge  of  the  best 
methods  or  experiments  for  ascertaining  the  qualifications  of  employees, 
and  providing  for  their  advancement. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  aim  of  this  new  association  was  to 
provide  a  professional  medium  for  the  exchange  of  experiences 
in  a  field  where  little  interchange  of  ideas  had  taken  place ;  to 
study  the  human  problein  in  industry  on  the  basis  of  fair  dealing 
with  the  employee.  In  short,  there  was  a  conscious  effort  to 
make  industrial  practice  square  with  the  dictates  of  twentieth 
century  enlightenment. 

Since  the  starting  of  the  Boston  organization,  other  cities 
have  formed  similar  societies.  The  present  indications  are  that 
a  country-wide  extension  of  such  organizations  will  take  place, 
because  the  idea  underlying  them  appears  to  be  fundamental, 
and  in  accord  with  the  aims  of  both  industry  and  social  service. 

If  such  extension,  then,  of  emploj-ment  executives'  associa- 
tions should  take  place,  the  time  is  opportune  to  consider  their 
purposes,  and  their  possible  contribution  to  right  industrial  re- 
lations. Bearing  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  original  effort  for 
such  type  of  association  came  from  an  institution  whose  chief 
aim  is  the  promotion  of  opportunity,  the  trend  of  development 

1  By  Meyer  Bloomfield,  Consultant  in  Employment  Management. 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy.      69:121-6.      September,    1915. 


34  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

in  such  associations  should  be  along  the  line  of  enlightened 
thinking  in  modern  industrial  organization.  If  their  growth  re- 
main true  to  the  initial  aims,  such  associations  are  in  a  position 
to  help  unravel  the  tangled  problems  of  misemployment,  under- 
employment and  unemployment,  and  the  waste  of  human  ca- 
pacity in  general. 

When  everything  that  present-day  science  can  suggest  in  the 
way  of  improving  technical  efficiency  in  systems  Qf  cost-keep- 
ing, equipment,  machinery  and  material  has  been  adopted,  the 
biggest  of  all  industrial  problems  still  remains  to  be  faced. 

This  is  the  problem  of  handling  men.  Every  thoughtful  em- 
ployer knows  that  managing  employees,  selecting,  assigning,  di- 
recting, supervising  and  developing  them,  is  the  one  phase  of 
management  which  is  most  difficult  and  complicated;  and  it  is 
the  one  problem  in  industry  which  has  in  the  past  had  least  con- 
secutive thought  bestowed  upon  it.  Not  that  employers  have 
been  unaware  of  the  size  of  this  task.  Experiment  after  ex- 
periment has  been  tried  with  varying  results,  all  of  them  aiming 
at  the  goal  of  welding  the  working  force  into  a  stable,  depend- 
able, and  well-assimilated  organization.  And  yet  such  organi- 
zation is  rare  in  modern   industry. 

Figures  as  to  the  change  in  the  working  force  of  various  es- 
tablishments are  not  easy  to  obtain,  but  enough  are  at  hand  to 
indicate  an  enormous  leakage  of  employees  each  year  in  the  av- 
erage store,  factory,  and  other  places  of  employment.  Many  a 
concern  employs  each  year  as  many  persons  as  its  total  payroll. 
That  is,  there  is  a  "turn-over"  of  employees  amounting  to  one 
hundred  per  cent.  The  figures  range  from  one-third  to  many 
times  the  total  number  of  employees.  How  many  employers 
have  figured  out  just  what  it  costs  in  dollars  and  cents  to  change 
an  employee?  How  many  have  estimated  the  cost  in  terms  of 
organization,  loyalty,  steadiness  and  esprit? 

Obviously,  an  organization  cannot  be  held  together  with  ropes 
of  sand.  The  coming  and  going  of  employees  on  such  a  scale 
as  the  data  available  would  indicate  cannot  but  prove  a  disin- 
tegrating force,  a  foe  to  sound  organization,  a  source  of  un- 
ceasing mischief. 

Employers,  of  course,  appreciate  more  or  less  clearly  what 
all  this  means.  But  few,  however,  have  set  themselves  to  study 
this  problem  as  it  should  be  studied.  Some  have  with  unhappy 
results  expected  miracle-workers  to  solve  this  problem,  and  have 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        35 

toyed  with  strange  employment  schemes.  Some  employers  have 
trusted  to  sleight-of-hand  performances  in  hiring  men  instead 
of  dealing  with  their  big  problem  in  the  waj'  they  deal  with 
other  knotty  problems.  If  to  psj-chology  they  must  turn,  a  psy- 
chologist and  educator  like  Prof.  E.  L.  Thorndike  of  Columbia, 
for  example,  could  have  shown  them  that  the  application  of 
science  to  the  problem  of  handling  men  involved  long  and  pain- 
staking, not  to  say  exceedingly  laborious,  investigation.  There 
is  no  royal  road  to  solving  the  man-problem  in  industry.  But 
there  are  ways,  intelligent,  common-sense  and  practically  un- 
derstandable ways,  of  setting  to  work.  There  are  certain  prin- 
ciples to  be  observed,  methods  to  be  adopted  and  standards 
to  be  maintained  in  dealing  with  the  question  of  personnel,  and 
adhering  to  these  -can  alone  insure  a  reasonable  degree  of  suc- 
cess. In  any  event  the  waste  and  friction  now  involved  in  the 
average  treatment  of  the  hiring  problem  can  be  materially  re- 
duced. 

In  the  first  place,  the  proposition  must  be  firmly  grasped 
that  handling  employees  is  a  serious  business.  Not  everybody 
can  or  should  hire ;  not  everybody  can  supervise  men.  But  it  is 
to  the  employment  department  of  the  establishment  that  we 
must  look  for  a  solution ;  to  its  powers,  duties,  functions  and 
place  in  the  scheme  of  organization.  And  above  everything 
else  we  must  look  to  the  character,  training,  equipment  and 
place  of  the  man  who  does  the  hiring. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  thought  can  be  most  profitably  be- 
stowed. A  new  conception  is  needed  of  the  functions  of  the 
employment  department,  and  the  qualifications  of  the  employ- 
ment superintendent.  Not  every  concern  has  a  special  employ- 
ment department,  although  the  large  establishments  are  giving 
up  the  system  of  hiring  by  department  heads,  and  concentrating 
the  selection  of  employees  into  a  separate  division.  More  and 
more  the  need  is  recognized  of  functionalizing  the  hiring  and 
handling  of  men.  Without  such  specialized  treatment  of  this 
problem  it  is  impossible  to  give  the  matter  the  attention  which 
it  requires.  Moreover,  the  power  to  hire  and  discharge  ex- 
tended to  a  number  of  individuals  has  given  rises  to  abuses  and 
frictions  which  have  cost  the  employer  dearly.  Nothing  is  more 
fatal  to  sound  organization  than  such  power  without  adequate 
supervision.  Petty  executives  should  never  be  entrusted  with 
this  vital  function.     Right  relations  cannot  be  secured  by  such 


36  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

a  method.  Hiring  men  and  discharging  men  are  serious  affairs. 
Only  big  men  can  handle  matters  like  these.  Costly  experience 
has  settled  this  proposition.  The  human  problem  calls  for  its 
solution  the  best  men  and  the  most  expert  consideration. 

This  indeed  is  a  moderate  statement.  To  pump  the  life- 
blood  through  an  establishment — this  is  what  hiring  men  really 
means — is  no  trifling  matter.  The  quality  of  the  working  force 
determines  in  the  final  analysis  the  quality  of  the  organization, 
of  its  product,  of  its  success.  Nowhere  is  this  fact  more  evi- 
dent than  in  the  organizations  which  sell  service ;  for  example, 
department  stores  and  public  service  corporations.  The  point 
of  contact  between  the  business  and  the  customers  is  always 
through  the  individual  employee.  The  medium  of  communica- 
tion is  that  very  individual.  The  btisiness  is  summed  up  as  to 
its  standards  by  this  outpost  in  the  person  of  saleswoman,  tele- 
phone operator,  or  car  conductor.  Good  will  is  made  or  un- 
made according  to  the  type  of  representative.  The  larger  the 
organization  the  more  the  units  of  contact.  Business  may  be 
essentially  impersonal,  but  it  is  highly  personal  in  its  service 
features.  The  teamster,  driver,  stenographer,  floor  manager, 
claim  adjuster  and  scores  of  others  act  in  a  personal  sense  and 
with  individual  customers. 

Who  selects  these  people?  On  what  basis  are  they  selected? 
Is  it  all  guess-work?  Is  it  possible  to  standardize  the  work  of 
selection?  The  business  man  who  has  not  already  asked  him- 
self questions  such  as  these  will  do  so  before  long.  The  whole 
drift  of  the  time  is  in  the  direction  of  greater  attention  to  the 
proper  selection  and  supervision  of  the  individual  worker.  It 
is  no  longer  a  by-product  of  other  responsibilities,  this  matter 
of    choosing    help.      It    is    no    longer    an    inferior    man's    job. 

The  employment  function  is  so  important  to  good  organiza- 
tion as  well  as  right  relations  that  the  hirin<i  office  must  be 
looked  upon  hereafter  as  one  of  the  big  departments  of  a  busi- 
ness. Somewhere  in  the  scheme  of  organization  provision  must 
be  made  for  a  well-equipped  office  to  deal  with  the  many  prob- 
lems concerning  personnel.  Only  through  such  specialization 
can  the  solution  be  approached.  In  the  first  place,  such  office 
or  department  alone  can  deal  with  the  task  of  scientifically  or- 
ganizing the  source  of  supply  of  help.  To  depend  on  appli- 
cants at  the  gate,  to  hang  out  a  want  shingle  or  to  advertise 
through  want  columns  or  the  medium  of  other  employees  is  too 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       37 

haphazard  a  method.  Raw  material  is  not  procured  in  this  way. 
Scientific  purchasing  requires  a  study  of  markets,  testing  out  of 
material  and  figuring  of  conditions.  There  is  here  no  higgling 
and  blind  bargaining.  The  laboratory  is  fequently  used  to 
render  final  verdict  in  favor  of  or  against  certain  purchases. 

WTiy  has  the  hiring  of  men  been  permitted  to  go  on  with 
less  systematic  scrutiny?  One  reason  has  been  the  surplus,  the 
labor  reserve.  This  will  not  long  avail,  first,  because  industrial 
conditions  and  legislations  are  working  to  diminish,  if  not  to 
wipe  out,  the  excess  of  applicants  for  work  on  the  fringe  of 
every  industry;  and  second,  because  wise  business  manage- 
ment recognizes  the  good  sense  of  organizing  the  source  of 
labor  supply. 

Source-organization  assumes  various  forms.  In  the  case  of 
prospective  executives,  some  large  establishments  employ 
"scouts,"  (not  unlike  those  of  major  baseball  leagues,  who 
range  the  minor  circuits  for  promising  players),  who  visit 
periodically  the  colleges  and  other  institutions  and  discover  the 
men  of  promise.  One  of  the  leading  manufacturing  companies 
of  the  country  Is  noted  for  its  post-graduate  business  opportuni- 
ties. Indeed,  It  has  built  Its  entire  executive  force  practically 
out  of  the  findings  of  its  scouts.  Another  establishment  re- 
cruits Its  rank  and  file  from  a  careful  canvass,  a  block-by-block, 
and  house  to  house  visitation  of  neighborhoods.  One  of  the 
leading  department  stores  in  the  East  has  made  special  ar- 
rangement with  the  high  schools  of  its  city  and  suburbs  to  send 
during  Saturdays  and  vacation  periods  boys  and  girls  for  try- 
out  work.  They  are  fairly  well-paid  during  the  probationary 
period.  When  they  have  finished  their  school  work,  positions 
are  awaiting  them,  based  on  the  observations  and  the  records  of 
the  employment  department  which  is  charged  with  this  duty. 

The  source  of  supplj',  then.  Is  the  first  job  of  a  properly  or- 
ganized employment  office.  Ample  powers  are  given  such 
offices  to  reach  out  and  tap  the  best  reservoirs.  There  is  no 
reliance  placed  on  securing  a  competitor's  help.  The  aim  of 
such  offices  Is  to  develop  Its  own  material  from  the  raw.  Per- 
manence of  work  is  secured  by  the  fact  that  fitness  for  the 
work  required  is  carefully  ascertained  In  advance.  Discharge 
is  not  in  the  hands  of  a  variety  of  sub-bosses.  Whim  and  prej- 
udice are  eliminated.  The  employment  office  aims  to  secure 
help  that  will  find  It  worth  while  to  stay. 


38  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

To  help  in  the  proper  appraisal  of  the  employee's  qualifica- 
tions, the  office  keeps  complete  records,  reports,  observations  and 
other  data.  Each  employee  may  consult  the  file  belonging  to 
him.  His  story  is  on  file,  impersonal  as  a  barometer.  But  the 
most  important  record  of  all  at  the  start,  in  the  right  sort  of 
hiring  office,  is  that  which  begins  with  the  application  blank. 

As  one  studies  the  application  cards  of  various  concerns  the 
reason  for  misfits  becomes  clear.  So  little  analysis  of  the  work 
required  has  been  undertaken  that  we  have  practically  no  speci- 
fications, no  blueprints  of  job-requirements  in  order  to  enable 
an  applicant  to  measure  himself  against  the  actual  demands. 
Hit-or-miss  is  the  prevailing  method.  Here  we  have  one  ex- 
planation for  the  labor  turnover.  The  hiring  office  properly 
managed  knows  that  a  well-devised  application  blank  is  one  of 
its  first  tasks. 

Some  time  ago  the  application  blanks  of  fifty  leading  cor- 
porations were  collected.  H  one  cut  off  the  firm  names,  there 
would  be  difficulty  in  locating  from  the  material  the  nature  of 
the  business  it  pertained  to.  The  blanks  showed  little  under- 
standing of  the  specific  requirements  of  the  various  occupa- 
tions. There  was  little  differentiation  in  the  questions  asked. 
Employees  cannot  be  properly  selected  on  such  a  basis.  Each 
establishment  must  work  out  its  own  needs  and  demands  and 
record  them  in  the  hiring  blank.  No  conventional  forms  will  do 
unless  selection  be  wholly  given  up. 

In  brief,  to  one  who  observes  the  current  practice  of  hiring 
and  discharging  employees,  the  conclusion  comes  home  with 
peculiar  force  that  in  no  other  phase  of  management  is  there  so 
much  unintelligence,  recklessness  of  cost  and  lack  of  imagina- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  in  the  right  organization  of  the  em- 
ployment scheme  there  would  seem  to  be  endless  possibilities  of 
genuine  service,  a  service  not  possible  even  in  the  most  be- 
nevolent of  welfare  projects. 

The  situation  on  the  whole  suggests  the  need  of  recognizing 
a  new  profession  in  the  organization  of  industrj' — the  profession 
of  hiring  and  developing  men.  Executives  will  have  to  be 
trained  for  this  work  as  they  are  trained  for  other  important 
responsibilities.  The  employment  manager,  the  executive  within 
whose  duties  falls  the  direction  of  the  personnel,  must  be  pre- 
pared for  this  work  as  for  a  genuine  profession.  The  handling 
of  men  in  this  century  will  call  for  uiuisual  preparation  in  the 
way  of  understanding  and  a  spirit  of  justice. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  39 


MAKING  THE  BOSS  EFFICIENT  > 

Several  hundred  men  from  all  over  the  country  met  a  few 
weeks  ago  in  Philadelphia  to  consider  the  problems  involved  in 
the  relationship  between  employers  and  employes.  They  spent 
two  days  in  frank  discussion  of  industrial  methods,  they  pointed 
out  where  managers  and  foremen  were  at  fault  and  they  talked 
about  justice  to  the  worker.  There  was  earnest  consideration 
of  the  question  of  legitimate  grievances. 

It  was  not  a  convention  of  an  international  trade  union. 
Quite  the  contrary.  The  men  present  were  the  employment 
managers  of  some  of  the  largest  corporations  in  America.  But 
they  were  meeting  to  exchange  experiences  and  get  new  ideas  in 
order  that  they  might  handle  their  jobs  better,  lessen  the  strain 
on  industrial  relations,  and  create  more  general  satisfaction 
among  employes. 

These  men  were  representatives  of  a  new  idea — an  idea  so 
hopeful  and  full  of  promise  that  there  is  just  a  possibility  of  its 
being  the  forerunner  of  policies  and  methods  that  will  revolu- 
tionize industry.  Whether  it  is  as  big  an  idea  as  that  remains 
to  be  seen,  but  unquestionably  it  means  new  things. 

When  Saint  Peter  on  the  Day  of  Judgment  begins  to  balance 
his  books  and  tabulate  his  statistics  he  will  find  that  until  about 
midway  of  the  second  decade  of  the  twentieth  century  employ- 
ers of  labor  in  general  and  critics  of  labor  policies  in  general 
had  one  sin  in  common.  They  both  believed  that  it  didn't  cost 
anything  to  replace  one  man  in  a  factory  with  another. 

There  were  exceptions,  but  in  general  the  critics  have  ex- 
pressed the  idea  almost  exultantly.  It  makes  a  fine  climax  to  a 
ringing  denunciation  of  the  emploj^ers'  disregard  of  human 
welfare.  "Aha,"  they  have  said,  "he  takes  good  care  of  his 
machines,  new  ones  cost  money.  But  his  men?  If  he  squeezes 
them  dry  and  throws  them  on  the  scrap  heap,  what's  the  dif- 
ference?   A  new  man  doesn't  cost  anything." 

With  certain  honorable  exceptions,  the  employers  have  be- 
lieved the  same  thing.  They  have  hired  and  fired  with  careless 
abandon.  As  a  competent  critic  observes,  "they  have  wasted 
human  efficiency  like  water."  The  only  thing  many  of  them 
have  cared  to  know  has  been  whether  men  were  standing  at  the 

•By  John  A.  Fitch.     Survey.     38:211-15.     June  2,  1917. 


40  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

gate,  seeking  employment.  So  long  as  men  were  in  reserve  they 
have  been  indifferent  to  discharges  and  resignations. 

With  the  employers  holding  to  a  theory  like  that,  and  their 
most  active  critics — even  the  unions — silent  or  acquiescent  in 
the  fallacy  that  a  new  man  costs  nothing,  what  could  you  expect? 
The  Ford  Motor  Company  in  1913  hired  54,000  new  men  to 
keep  13,000  jobs  filled — more  than  four  times  as  many  men  as 
there  were  jobs.  To  put  it  in  terms  of  modern  business  prob- 
lems, the  "labor  turnover"  of  the  Ford  company  was  over  400 
per  cent. 

That  was  four  years  ago.  Things  have  changed  since  the 
men  began  to  get  five  dollars  for  an  eight-hour  day.  But  even 
now  in  other  industries  the  Ford  experience  of  1913  can  be 
duplicated.  At  the  Philadelphia  meeting  a  representative  of  the 
Goodrich  Rubber  Company  said  that  in  recent  years  it  had  been 
necessary  to  hire  in  a  twelve-month  nearly  twice  as  many  men 
as  were  on  the  payroll  at  one  time  in  order  to  keep  the  plant 
fully  manned.  And  he  declared  that,  at  the  time  of  speaking, 
the  labor  turnover  of  that  company  was  higher  still. 

Hiring  and  Firing 

That  there  is  a  shocking  social  waste  about  such  a  condition 
has  of  course  long  been  evident  to  everyone.  That  it  is  exceed- 
ingly discreditable  to  a  society  that  permits  it  has  been  pointed 
out  again  and  again.  Even  though  we  haven't  known  and  do 
not  know  now  just  how  fast  the  work  of  hiring  and  firing  has 
gone  on,  we  have  seen  it  and  been  appalled  by  it  in  the  seasonal 
industries. 

We  have  blamed  society  for  it,  and  rightly,  where  it  has  been 
due  to  the  lack  of  training  and  guidance  of  the  men  and  women 
who  must  be  engaged  in  industry.  We  have  deplored  the  blind 
alley  jobs  where  a  boy  learned  no  trade  and  is  turned  out  at 
maturity,  too  old  for  the  job  that  spoiled  his  best  learning  j'ears 
and  incompetent  for  a  better  job,  to  drift  from  one  unskilled 
task  to  another,  never  satisfactory  and  never  satisfied.  We  have 
scored  the  employer  for  ruthlessly  turning  off  his  "help"  when- 
ever it  suited  his  purpose. 

We  have  seen  that  the  whole  proceeding  is  tremendously 
costly  for  society.  The  carrying  of  a  dead  weight  of  incom- 
petents who  might  have  been  trained  to  skilful  service  and  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       41 

maintenance  of  an  industrial  reserve  to  await  the  pleasure  of 
the  employer  has  been  a  heavy  burden  on  the  public.  We  have 
seen,  too,  how,  above  all,  it  has  been  costly  for  the  employe. 
Every  member  of  this  shifting  army  of  labor  feels  in  his  own 
body  the  effects  of  unemployment  and  stamped  on  his  mind  is 
the  discomfort  and  misery  of  constant  economic  uncertainty. 

The  High  Cost  of  New  Men 

But  we  have  continued  to  believe  that  it  costs  the  employer 
nothing.  How  wrong  we  have  been,  the  employer  himself  is 
now  beginning  to  point  out.  There  have  been  employers  here 
and  there  who  knew  it  all  the  time,  but  there  was  no  talk  about 
it.  There  was  no  general  understanding.  Most  of  the  employ- 
ers were  wholly  in  the  dark,  and  many  of  them  continue  in  it. 

The  study  made  in  1913  by  Magnus  W.  Alexander  was  the 
first  attempt  to  grapple  with  costs.  There  were  few  guide  posts 
pointing  the  way,  but  Mr.  Alexander  found  no  fewer  than  five 
distinct  elements  of  cost  in  hiring  and  training  new  employes. 
These  were : 

1.  Clerical  work  in  connection  with  the  hiringi  process. 

2.  Instruction   of   new  employes   by   foremen   and   assistants. 

3.  Increased  wear  and  tear  of  machinery  and  tools  by  new  employes. 

4.  Reduced  rate  of  production  during  early  period  of  employment. 

5.  Increased   amount    of   spoiled   work   by    new   employes. 

He  admitted  that  these  were  not  the  only  costs  and  named 
two  others:  "Reduced  profits  due  to  reduced  production,"  and 
"investment  cost  of  increased  equipment  on  account  of  the  de- 
creased productivity  of  the  machines  on  which  new  employes 
are  being  broken  in."  He  made  no  attempt,  however,  to  es- 
timate these  costs. 

He  found  next  that  these  elements  of  cost  varied  with  differ- 
ent classes  of  emploj^es.  After  making  due  allowance  for  each 
of  the  five  items  of  cost,  and  for  each  of  five  classes  of  em- 
ployes, Mr.  Alexander  estimated  that  the  cost  of  hiring  a  new 
man  was  between  $35  and  $40. 

It  was  stated  above  that  over  42,500  new  employes  were 
hired  by  twelve  factories  in  a  year  that  began  with  over  37,000 
employes  on  the  payroll  and  ended  with  about  44,000.  After 
making  deductions  for  changes  due  to  unavoidable  causes,  Mr. 
Alexander  came  to  the  conclusion  that  22,000  employes  were 
unnecessarily  hired,  at  an  expense  to  the  twelve  factories  in- 
volved of  $831,000. 


42  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Mr.  Grieves,  who  made  a  study  of  twenty  factories  in  1914, 
where  69,000  new  employes  were  hired  to  maintain  a  force  of 
44,000,  found  the  same  elements  of  cost  as  those  considered  by 
Mr.  Alexander.  He  estimated  the  average  cost  of  hiring  to  be 
$40  per  man  and  figured  the  extra  cost  of  hiring  unnecessary 
employes  for  the  twenty  factories  was  $1,760,000.  John  M. 
Williams,  secretary  of  Fayette  R.  Plumb,  Inc.,  of  Philadelphia,  in 
an  address  delivered  in  April,  declared  that  $40  is  an  extremely 
low  estimate  of  the  cost  of  hiring  a  new  man.  His  investigations 
led  him  to  place  the  figure  nearer  $100. 

Now  that  men  are  not  so  easy  to  get,  employers  are  in  a 
frame  of  mind  to  consider  the  new  idea  in  employment,  which 
has  spread  so  rapidly  within  the  last  two  years.  That  idea  is 
simply  this :  That  the  employment  problem  should  be  studied 
as  carefully  and  as  scientifically  as  any  other  business  problem. 
To  make  this  possible  the  function  of  hiring  and  discharging 
is  taken  away  from  the  foremen  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
centralized  employment  department.  Foremen  are  hired,  not 
for  their  ability  to  select  good  workmen,  but  for  their  technical 
knowledge  and  their  ability  to  get  out  the  work.  It  is  a  loss  of 
energy  and  a  detriment  to  the  plant  for  the  foremen  to  do  the 
work  of  hiring  new  men — and  in  addition  they  are,  as  likely  as 
not,  incompetent  for  that  particular  task. 

An  executive  of  a  manufacturing  company  that  adopted  the 
new  method  of  employment  last  year  said  recently: 

One  of  the  first  benefits  we  derived  was  in  freeing  the  foremen  from 
the  daily  necessity  of  looking  over  men  they  needed  at  the  factory  door. 
Under  the  old  system  the  first  hour  of  each  morning  and  the  most  critical 
hour  from  a  departmental  standpoint,  was  signalized  by  the  absence  of  the 
foremen  from  their  departments.  The  new  system  automatically  changed 
this,  and  foremen  were  free  to  supervise  work  in  their  own  departments, 
rather   than   lose   hours   daily   in   interviewing  applicants  for  work. 

By  placing  the  function  of  hiring  in  a  specialized  department 
with  a  responsible  executive  in  charge,  it  is  possible  to  acquire 
a  knowledge  of  the  sources  of  labor  supply  that  never  could  be 
had  under  the  old  system.  At  the  same  time  a  capacity  for  judg- 
ing men  and  making  wise  selections  is  developed. 

The  first  great  function  of  an  employment  department,  as  I 
get  it  from  the  prophets  and  leaders  of  this  movement,  is  the 
selection  of  the  employe  from  an  organized  labor  market — not 
at  the  gate.  The  fact  that  the  old  methods  did  not  result  in 
wise  selections  is  one  of  the  strongest  reasons  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  new  methods.     Any  analysis  of  labor  turnover  un- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       43 

der  the  unregulated,  hit-or-miss  methods  of  a  few  years  ago  will 
show  a  constant  shifting  because  the  men  hired  were  not  fit  for 
the  jobs.  A  very  large  part  of  the  work  of  eliminating  this 
waste  consists  in  hiring  the  right  men  the  first  time — in  getting 
men  who  are  fitted  to  the  jobs.  Trained,  intelligent,  experienced 
employment  men  can  do  that  far  better  than  men  whose  training 
is  exclusively  in  another  field  and  whose  experience  is  in  opera- 
tion rather  than  in  hiring. 

Round  Pins  for  Round  Holes 

Not  even  men  of  experience  and  training  can  select  men  with 
100  per  cent  success,  however.  They  may  be  mistaken  alto- 
gether, or  they  may  have  sent  men  to  the  wrong  departments  or 
placed  them  in  the  wrong  jobs.  The  second  chief  function  of 
an  employment  department,  therefore,  the  leaders  and  wise  men 
in  this  field  tell  me,  is  the  training  of  men  and  the  constant  en- 
deavor to  place  them  in  positions  for  which  they  are  fitted  or  to 
which  they  are  adapted. 

When  the  hiring  and  firing  is  done  by  the  foremen  a  man 
seldom  gets  a  second  chance  to  make  good.  He  may  be  em- 
inently fitted  for  some  other  job  in  the  plant,  but  the  foreman 
hasn't  time  to  inquire  into  that.  He  simply  discharges  the  man 
and  tries  another.  Under  the  newer  system  the  foreman  has  no 
power  of  discharge.  He  merely  refers  an  unsatisfactory  em- 
ploye back  to  the  employment  department  with  a  statement  of 
his  reasons  for  considering  him  unsuited  to  the  work  of  his  de- 
partment. The  employment  manager  does  not  then  discharge 
the  man  except  for  the  gravest  of  reasons.  He  studies  his  case, 
tries  him  out  somewhere  else  and  continues  to  try  him  until  it 
becomes  perfectly  clear  that  he  is  hopelessly  incompetent. 

Most  important  of  all  from  many  points  of  view  is  the  third 
function  of  an  employment  department  conducted  according  to 
the  new  idea.  Here  is  where  new  ground  is  being  broken.  The 
importance  of  hiring  men  who  are  fitted  for  the  jobs  has  long 
been  recognized.  It  is  a  new  thing,  however,  for  an  employ- 
ment department  to  consider  whether  the  jobs  are  fit  for  the 
men.  But  that  is  what  employment  managers  are  now  doing, 
seriously  and  in  dead  earnest.  This  is  where,  most  of  all,  there 
enters  what  Meyer  Bloomfield  of  Boston,  calls  "the  new  pro- 
fession of  handling  men." 


44  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


Loss  from  Trained  Men  Who  Quit 

Studies  of  employment  problems  have  revealed  that  a  high 
labor  turnover  is  not  due  exclusively  to  hiring  the  wrong  men. 
There  are  two  elements  in  turnover — the  discharge  of  undesir- 
able workers  and  the  voluntary  leaving  of  desirable  ones.  The 
first  element  can  be  attacked  effectively  by  careful  selection. 
Discharges  for  incompetency  may  be  reduced  to  a  reasonable 
minimum.  When  this  is  done,  however,  the  terrible  drain  due 
to  the  second  element  in  the  situation,  the  voluntary  quitting  of 
good  men,  is  only  emphasized. 

Accordingly,  the  new  employment  department  makes  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  reasons  for  quitting.  Many  of  them  have  a 
rule  that  a  man  cannot  leave  without  passing  through  the  office 
of  the  employment  manager.  A  requirement  that  the  signature 
of  the  employment  manager  must  be  secured  before  the  last  pay 
can  be  drawn  enables  the  manager  to  have  a  face-to-face  inter- 
view with  every  man  as  he  leaves  the  company's  employ.  Of 
course  it  is  not  always  possible  to  induce  men  to  give  their  real 
reasons  for  leaving,  but  a  tactful  official  can  get  pretty  close  to 
the  facts  in  a  majority  of  cases. 

What  this  procedure  means  is  that  the  management  is  get- 
ting the  most  accurate  and  valuable  check  it  could  possibly  have 
on  its  own  competency  from  the  standpoint  of  dealing  with 
labor.  It  is  thus  enabled  to  test  the  capability  of  foremen  and 
gang  bosses,  and  it  receives  illuminating  reports  on  the  physical 
condition  of  the  plant  and  the  acceptability  of  working  condi- 
tions and  of  the  scale  of  wages. 

Nothing  would  illustrate  the  point  better  than  the  experience 
of  a  Philadelphia  company  that  reorganized  its  employment 
methods  only  a  little  over  a  year  ago.  Speaking  before  a  con- 
ference of  employment  managers  in  Philadelphia  recently,  John 
M.  Williams,  secretary  of  Fayette  R.  Plumb,  Inc.,  explained  that 
their  employment  manager  has  a  chance  to  interview  every  man 
who  is  leaving  the  company's  employ.     He  said: 

Some  of  the  results  are  illuminating.  When  men  quit  or  are  dis- 
charged they  have  no  reason  for  withholding  information.  Complaints  are 
heard  of  nagging  foremen,  lost  time  in  waiting  for  work  and  other  com- 
plaints bearing  on  shop  efficiency.  These  are  investigated,  and  if  the  fault 
is  with  us  it  is  remedied. 

These  complaints  brought  to  light  the  weakness  of  one  of  our  best 
foremen.  He  always  had  a  "chip  on  his  shoulder,"  approached  his  men 
with   that   attitude   and   caused   a  great   deal   of   friction   before   this   fault 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        45 

was  discovered.  A  talk  by  our  superintendent  convinced  him  that  while 
that  sort  of  attitude  may  have  been  all  right  ten  years  ago,  it  can't  be  done 
— not   now. 

Another  case:  a  man  quit,  and  on  being  asked  for  reasons  stated  that 
he  had  to  lose  too  much  time  waiting  for  one  indispensable  tool,  and  for 
material  for  his  work.  Likewise  was  advised  that  his  work  was  0.  K.  by 
one  inspector,  only  to  finish  it  up  and  have  a  half  day's  work  thrown  back 
by  another  inspector.  An  investigation  proved  that  the  man  was  justified; 
the  case  was  settled  and  the  man  is  still  with  us.  As  this  man  was  an 
experienced  hand  in  the  department  in  which  I  stated  it  cost  us  $100  to 
break  in  a  new  man,  it  looks  as  though  this  was  a  fair  day's  work. 

Other  accomplishments  of  the  new  employment  department 
in  this  plant,  as  related  by  Mr.  Williams,  are  most  impressive. 

_  One  of  our  departments  demanded  personal  investigation,  as  we  found 
it  impossible  to  keep  men  or  to  maintain  production.  An  analysis  by  the 
employment  department  showed  poor  shop  conditions  in  many  phases. 

(A)  Inadequate  artificial  lighting  at  dusk,  so  bad  that  no  one  but  the 
individual  workman  bent  over  his  work  could  tell  what  he  was  doing.  Thi.s 
part  of  room  dark  and  cheerless. 

(B)  Bad  drainage  in  the  rear  of  the  machines,  which  were  fed  with 
water.  The  water  collected  in  spots.  This  section  of  the  department  had 
a    dank    unwholesome    smell. 

(C)  The  foreman  was  inefficient,  had  no  control  over  his  men,  and 
therefore  none  over  his  department.  He  wasted  most  of  his  time  doing 
clerical  work  that  he  dragged  out  almost  over  the  entire  day.  The  men 
who  worked  under  him  were  as  a  class  heavy  drinkers  and  independent, 
worked  when  they  wanted  to  and  quit  when  they  wanted  to.  The  follow- 
ing  remedies   were  suggested  and   adopted: 

(a)  Improved  lighting.  One  hundred  watt  Mazda  lamps  were  installed 
every    twenty    feet. 

(b)  Drain  was  put  in  which  took  care  of  all  excess  water,  relieving 
both   the   discomfort   and   odor. 

(c)  The  foreman  was  discharged  and  a  capable  man'  from  another  de- 
partment put  in  his  place.  This  move  stiffened  up  discipline  and  improved 
personnel   of   department. 

(d)  The  entire  layout  was  inspected,  safety  guards  put  on  all  machines 
where  there  was  any  chance  of  a  workman  getting  injured.  Everything 
possible  was  done  to  make  the  operation  of  the  machine  safe  and  con- 
venient  for   the  men. 

(e)  Two  instructors  were  installed  to  teach  new  men. 

(f)  All  piece  rates  were  carefully  analyzed  and  prices  adjusted  so  that 
there  were  no  "good  jobs"  and  "bad  jobs."  They  were  all  made  "fair  and 
square  jobs."  Rates  were  equalized  and  set  so  that  men  could  make  an 
average  sum  per  hour  on  any  kind  of  work  done  in  the  department.  Since 
then  there  have  been  several  adjustments  and  still  a  few  to  make,  but  we 
keep  in  close  touch  with  the  work,  and  "raise  before  we  are  compelled  to." 
This  is  the  department  that  increased  production  18.4  per  cent,  with  five 
hours  per  week  less  running  time,  and  last  month  had  the  largest  produc- 
tion in  the  last  three  years.    ... 

Transfers  in  the  factory  had  never  been  attempted.  If  a  man  did  not 
suit  his  foreman,  he  was  fired  and  no  questions  asked.  Now  we  look  into 
unsatisfactory  cases,  try  to  find  the  cause,  remedy  it  if  we  can,  and  if  we 
can't,  try  to  locate  the  unsatisfactory  man  in  another  department. 

Just  a  few  cases  of  what  we  have  done: 

We  have  one  young  man,  of  undoubted  ability,  good  personality,  pleas- 
ant and  obliging.  He  became  a  regular  Monday  absentee,  took  all  that 
was  told  to  him  as  a  reprimand  with  a  lackadaisical  air,  and  had  evidently 
lost  his  "pep."  We  found  upon  investigation  that  he  was  fast  becoming 
disgusted  with  his  outlook,  and  felt  that  he  was  up  against  a  blank  wall. 
We  transferred  him  to  a  semi-executive  position  in  another  department, 
gave  him  larger  responsibilities,  and  a  larger  salary,  and  he  has  more  than 
made  good.  ^    v      •  v 

Another  man  was  a  boss  trucker,  who  made  a  flat  failure  of  the  job. 
He  was  then  made  head  inspector  of  one  of  our  hardest  departments,  and 


46  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

has  done  wonders  in  bringing  up  the  general  efficiency  of  the  department. 
He  was  temporarily  unfitted  for  one  job,  and  fitted  for  the  other.    .    .    . 

To  show  you  how  far  we  have  gone  1  will  cite  the  way  disputes  were 
handled  before  and  have  been  since  the  creation  of  this  department.  For- 
merly men  would  stop  work  in  a  bunch,  demanding  something,  and  refuse 
to  return  to  work  until  it  was  granted.  In  one  case  they  gave  us  one  hour 
to  consider  a  question  involving  fifty  men  in  one  department,  and  before 
we  had  time  to  even  digest  the  demand  the  hour  was  up  and  they  walked 
out.  Since  April  i,  19:5,  we  have  had  no  strikes  nor  no  threats.  We 
have  had  two  requests,  and  the  men  have  stayed  at  work  until  a  decision 
was  reached.  I  wish  to  say  that  if  our  employment  department  had  done 
nothing  but  produce  this  feeling  of  personal  responsibility  to  each  other 
on  the  part  of  the  men  and  on  the  part  of  the  firm,  it  would  have  justified 
its  existence  and  its  cost. 

In  conclusion  I  feel  that  in  the  study  of  employment  problems  we  are 
trying  to  solve  issues  ages  old,  and  while  the  reward  is  great  from  the 
standpoint  of  efficient  factory  management,  the  reward  is  still  greater  if  we 
can  but  help  to  solve  the  principle  of  humanity  involved,  and  so  insure 
that  cooperation  without  which  we  can  make  no  progress,  and  with  which 
the  watch-word  will  be   "prosperity  for  all"  and  not  "prosperity  for  one." 

Four  years  ago  the  Vocation  Bureau  of  Boston  awoke  to  a 
realization  that  something  was  wrong  with  employment  meth- 
ods. Their  best  efforts  in  placing  young  people  in  the  right 
positions  were  nullified  by  a  lack  of  effective  cooperation  toward 
the  same  ends  on  the  part  of  most  employers.  There  seemed 
to  be  little  effort  to  fit  the  inan  to  the  job  or  the  job  to  the 
man.  A  boy  would  be  placed  in  a  position  only  to  lose  it  or  leave 
it  in  a  short  time.  In  order  to  get  a  chance  at  least  to  talk 
things  over  the  Vocation  Bureau  invited  into  conference  a 
group  of  men  connected  with  the  various  industries  in  Boston 
who  dealt  with  the  problem  of  hiring.  From  that  initial  confer- 
ence grew  a  desire  for  regular  and  frequent  conferences  for  the 
interchange  of  opinion  and  experience,  and  the  first  association 
of  employing  executives  in  the  country. 

Managers  Organizing  in  Many  Cities 

Accordingly  the  Boston  Employment  Managers'  Association 
was  organized.  Not  all  of  the  members  were  "managers"  at  the 
outset.  The  employment  problems  that  were  given  an  airing  at 
these  meetings,  soon  led  to  the  conviction,  however,  on  the  part 
of  most  of  the  members,  that  the  man  in  charge  of  employment 
should  be  a  manager  in  a  real  sense — an  executive  with  recog- 
nized responsibility  and  authority. 

Almost  simultaneously,  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  notably 
in  Detroit,  similar  organizations  with  similar  convictions  and 
aims  have  come  into  being.  From  these  pioneer  organizations 
the  idea  has  grown  until  there  are  now  in  a  dozen  cities,  from 
Boston   to    San    Francisco,    organizations  known   as   executives' 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        47 

clubs,  employment  managers'  associations  and  the  like  which 
meet  regularly  to  discuss  employment  problems.  Three  national 
conferences  have  now  been  held,  the  first  in  Minneapolis  and 
the  second  in  Boston — both  of  these  were  held  last  year,  the 
third  in  Philadelphia  in  April. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  what  this  movement  may  mean  to  in- 
dustry. The  fact  that  it  is  a  "movement"  is  what  gives  it  sig- 
nificance. The  individual  conceptions  in  this  new  idea  of  em- 
ployment" are  not  themselves  new.  Some  of  them  have  been 
practiced  for  many  years  by  individual  employers.  The  im- 
portant thing  is  their  rediscover}'  and  their  restatement  in  a 
form  that  has  taken  hold  of  the  imagination  of  employers  the 
country  over  and  so  is  gathering  adherents  like  a  new  crusade. 

The  movement  must  give  a  great  impetus  to  education  and  to 
the  conservation  of  human  skill.  So  much  it  must  accomplish 
merely  from  the  standpoint  of  getting  the  right  kind  of  workers 
into  industry.  When  industrial  managers  analj'ze  industry  itself 
to  see  whether  it  oflFers  a  fit  career  to  the  kind  of  men  whom 
they  would  like  to  employ,  the  possibilities  in  the  way  of  social 
betterment  are  very  great. 

The  aims,  the  full  intent  of  the  new  type  of  employment 
manager,  cannot  be  described  except  in  his  own  language. 
Robert  C.  Clothier,  of  the  Curtis  Publishing  Company,  has  said, 
"The  raising  of  the  standard  of  efficiency  of  the  working  force, 
individuall}'  and  as  a  whole,  in  order  that  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  wage-dollar  may  be  increased — this  as  we  interpret  it  is 
the  broad  function  of  the  emploj^ment  department."  And  he 
names  among  the  essential  principles  to  be  observed,  intelligent 
selection,  instruction  work,  the  creation  of  a  "satisfied  spirit," 
the  stimulation  of  hope  of  advancement  by  filling  positions  from 
within  the  organization,  and  the  avoidance  of  arbitrary  or  unjust 
dismissals. 

President  Hopkins,  of  Dartmouth,  who  reached  his  present 
position  through  the  unique  route  of  employment  manager  in 
several  large  corporations,  speaks  of  the  efficiency  of  a  high 
wage  and  reasonable  hours.  "The  truth  is,"  he  says,  "that 
seemingly  there  is  not  yet  any  general  understanding  among 
employers  that  a  high  gross  payroll  does  not  necessarily  result 
from  a  high  individual  wage,  or  expressed  in  slightly  different 
terms,  that  cost  per  unit  of  production  may  be  larger  the  lower 
the  rate  of  pay  to  the  individual  worker." 


48  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

The  same  idea  is  expressed  by  Boyd  Fisher,  secretary  of  the 
Detroit  Executives  Club  when  he  says :  "One  of  the  most  basic 
remedies  for  turnover  is  the  payment  of  an  adequate  wage.  .  .  . 
Bj'  adequate  wage  I  don't  mean  merely  a  minimum  wage.  I 
mean  a  good  fat  wage.  .  .  .  Start  your  men  right,  promote 
physical  efficiency,  foster  good  habit,  make  your  work  an  un- 
folding career  and  a  sufficient  future,  and  all  the  time  encourage 
self-expression,  not  only  of  complaints  but  of  suggestions  and 
of  cooperative  interest  and  activity." 

Mr.  Fisher,  who  is  one  of  the  most  irrepressible  optimists  in 
this  movement,  even  goes  so  far  as  to  recommend  that  when 
men  must  be  fired — for  he  believes  that  "there  is  a  legitimate 
place  yet  for  the  tin  can" — "every  discharge  should  be  certified 
by  a  committee  on  which  workmen  are  represented."  This 
sounds  like  a  radical  proposition,  yet  at  the  Filene  store  in 
Boston  no  employe  has  been  discharged  for  years  without  right 
of  appeal  to  a  board  on  which  not  only  are  employes  "repre- 
sented," but  which  is  composed  exclusively  of  employes.  This 
board  has  reinstated  some  employes  who  have  been  discharged 
by  the  store,  and  others  they  have  refused  to  reinstate.  No  one 
can  come  in  contact  with  its  work  without  being  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  uncompromising  standard  of  justice  that  has  been 
set  up  toward  the  store  management  as  well  as  toward  the  em- 
ployes. 

The  Promise  for  Both  Masters  and  Men 

It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that  industry  in  general  will 
soon  be  conducted  in  accordance  with  these  ideas.  The  labor 
policies  of  some  of  the  largest  corporations  in  the  country  are 
based  on  theories  that  are  vastly  different.  But  the  fact  that 
these  new  ideas  in  employment  are  finding  such  wide  acceptance 
among  employers  and  industrial  managers  does  justify  the  hope 
that  great  changes  are  on  their  way — changes  that  will  mean 
vastly  improved  conditions  of  living  and  of  work,  more  amicable 
industrial  relations  and  better  industrial  practice  in  every  way, 
affording  benefits  to  the  employe  and  to  the  employer  as  well. 

The  new  idea  in  emploj^mcnt  methods  must  have  the  effect  of 
changing  altogether  the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  employer  as  he 
approaches  any  question  involving  the  satisfaction  of  his  em- 
ployes.   The  old,  narrow-minded  attitude  that  refuses  to  meet  a 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        49 

committee  must  give  way  to  a  more  tolerant,  a  more  scientific 
spirit.  An  employer  doesn't  refuse  to  give  any  consideration  to 
a  machine  that  has  broken  down,  he  tries  to  get  at  the  cause ; 
he  doesn't  curse  a  piece  of  material  that  fails  to  meet  the  re- 
quired test,  he  sends  it  to  the  chemist  for  analysis. 

It  doesn't  pay  to  have  a  different  formula  for  treating  human 
reactions.  Dissatisfied  men  are  expensive  men  to  employ.  The 
new  attitude  towards  these  matters  is  going  to  lead  the  employer 
sooner  or  later  to  consider  coolly  and  on  its  merits  every  con- 
ceivable need  and  desire  of  the  workers  in  his  plant.  It  will  lead 
him  out  into  the  community  to  discover  whether  there  exists  an 
opportunity  for  comfortable  living  at  the  wage  he  pays.  And 
finally  it  must  lead  him  to  consider  the  question  of  the  participa- 
tion of  the  employes  in  problems  of  management.  One  of  the 
biggest  shoe  companies  in  the  country  has  20  per  cent  of  its  em- 
ployes in  training  all  the  time  for  executive  positions.  That 
number  of  men  alternate  between  work  on  their  machines  and 
on  executive  work.  Another  has  found  it  worth  while  to  spend 
time  explaining  to  the  men  its  production  problems.  It  turns 
over  to  the  men  all  the  knowledge  in  its  possession,  leads  them 
to  see  the  job  not  as  a  mechanical  process  but  as  a  problem  to 
be  solved  and  thus  it  enlists  their  cooperation  and  at  the  same 
time  gives  them  something  worth  working  for. 

It  isn't  industrial  democracy — whatever  that  is — not  yet.  But 
the  men  in  this  new  movement  have  said  goodby  to  tradition. 
They  have  turned  their  backs  on  prejudice  and  the  closed  mind. 
They  are  ready  to  give  a  hearing  to  new  methods  in  dealing 
with  employes  and  even  to  give  them  a  trial.  When  a  big  idea 
gets  into  the  minds  of  men  like  that  they  are  worth  watching 
and  the  whole  world  is  before  them. 


THE  NEW  ART  OF  HIRING  AND  FIRING^ 

"Turnover"  is  the  phrase  used  in  industry  to  express  the 
great  numerical  loss  of  men  suffered  thru  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
labor.  Investigators  who  have  set  their  minds  to  study  the 
human  problem  have  found  that  for  every  unit  of  a  thousand 
men  nearly  three  thousand  have  to  be  employed  in  the  course  of 
a  year  to  keep  the  unit  up  to  full  strength.  In  this  "Turnover" 
there  is  a  great  economic  loss  for  both  capital  and  labor.    It  has 

*  By  J.  D.  Hackett.     Independent.     92:144.     October  20,    1917. 


50  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

been  clearly  demonstrated  that  every  workingman  loses  from 
$20  to  $30  between  jobs  and  every  employer  loses  about  twice  as 
much  in  hiring  and  training  a  new  man  to  take  his  place.  Of 
course  there  is  a  great  variation  for  individual  jobs.  A  silk 
manufacturer  found  it  cost  him  $70  to  hire  and  train  a  broad 
silk  weaver,  $50  to  train  a  spinner  and  so  on  thru  the  whole  list. 
Very  often,  however,  no  benefit  was  gained  because  the  em- 
ployees quit  soon  after  the  period  of  training  was  completed. 
Imagine  the  aggregate  loss  to  the  individual  and  to  industry; 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  in  a  plant  where  only  a 
thousand  men  are  employed.  It  went  into  many  millions  in  the 
Ford  plant  before  they  "did  something." 

Knowing  the  extent  and  cost  of  turnover  are  but  steps  in  the 
right  direction;  the  next  point  is  to  discover  and  apply  the  rem- 
edy. Thii  consists  in  getting  the  right  sort  of  laborer,  keeping 
him  if  you  can  and,  if  he  departs,  utilizing  the  knowledge  of  the 
cause  of  departure  in  order  to  retain  the  other  workers  in  con- 
tentment. 

Among  those  who  have  recognized  the  importance  of  anchor- 
ing their  labor  supply,  it  is  becoming  the  custom  now  to  make 
a  comprehensive  study  of  employment,  beginning  with  the  source 
of  labor.  From  the  period  of  men's  application  till  that  of  their 
departure,  their  careers  are  studied  with  care,  both  individually 
and  collectively.  The  location  of  dwelling  in  relation  to  the 
plant,  transportation,  age,  nationality,  height  and  other  points 
are  matters  for  consideration.  The  applicant  is  "introduced"  with 
much  formality  and  informed  that  complaints  will  be  carefully 
considered.  From  exact  specifications,  previously  compiled,  he 
is  placed  in  the  position  which  seems  to  suit  him  best.  Promo- 
tion is  held  out  as  an  inducement  to  "stay  put"  and  his  possible 
advances  in  pay  are  specified.  He  is  instructed  what  to  do  in 
case  of  accident  and  informed  of  the  educational  facilities  in 
the  neighborhood,  in  case  he  should  desire  to  study.  All  such 
moves  tend  to  reduce  the  human  turnover  of  the  plant. 

Founded  on  the  theory  that  you  cannot  reduce  turnover  till 
you  have  adequately  diagnosed  its  cause,  is  the  careful  tabula- 
tion of  the  reasons  why  men  leave  their  jobs.  An  analysis  of 
many  thousand  reasons,  actually  recorded,  has  made  it  possible 
to  eliminate  the  inessential  and  classify  the  essential  into  a  short 
and  usable  list. 

In  all  industry  about  75  per  cent  of  those  who  leave  volun- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        51 

tarily  quit  their  work  and,  on  the  average,  not  more  than  15  per 
cent  are  discharged.  The  remainder  are  laid  off  thru  seasonal 
or  occasional  work.  When  this  balance  is  not  maintained  an  in- 
quiry is  instituted  as  to  the  true  significance  of  the  change. 

Excessive  discharge  may  indicate  that  the  employment  meth- 
ods are  at  fault,  that  some  foremen  are  inconsiderate  or  that 
the  limited  labor  supply  necessitates  the  hiring  of  men  who 
would  not  be  taken  on  in  normal  times.  A  high  percentage  of 
voluntary  quitters  shows,  possibly,  that  men  are  not  satisfied 
with  conditions  as  to  work  or  pay.  In  either  case  the  employer 
is  mighty  glad  to  find  out  which.  He  is  not  satisfied  merely 
to  learn  that  the  work  was  found  to  be  unsatisfactory.  He  de- 
sires to  know  specific  complaints.  These  are  carefully  followed 
up  so  that  unnecessarily  bad  conditions  may  be  improved.  Con- 
siderable expenditures  for  alterations  often  cost  less  than  hiring 
and  training  new  men.  Damp  floors  may  be  drained.  Windows 
may  be  enlarged  to  give  more  air.  Dust  may  be  removed  by 
suitable  exhaust  systems  so  that  the  employee  works  in  more 
comfort  and  does  not  find  it  necessary  to  look  for  a  better  job 
elsewhere. 

A  distinction  is  even  drawn  between  men  who  quit  because 
the  pay  is  too  small  and  between  those  who  leave  for  better  pay 
at  another  plant.  When  the  aggregate  number  of  these  two 
classes  increases,  it  indicates  that  the  pay  schedule  needs  revi- 
sion. In  this  manner  strikes  '  are  anticipated  by  the  shrewd 
employer  and  much  loss  on  both  sides  is  avoided. 

The  personal  reasons  why  men  quit  can  all  be  recorded  and 
grouped  under  the  lowest  number  of  essential  headings  so  that 
the  resultant  statistics  are  an  exact  picture  of  conditions.  If  a 
large  number  quit  because  of  bad  housing  conditions,  it  indicates 
that  a  comprehensive  building  scheme  may  be  an  absolute  eco- 
nomic necessity  in  order  to  stabilize  the  force. 

Time  was  when  men  were  laid  off  without  any  other  consid- 
eration than  the  immediate  reduction  in  labor  cost;  no  one  had 
visualized  the  other  expenses  involved.  Nowadays  executives 
go  to  great  lengths  to  equalize  production  in  order  to  maintain 
the  balance  of  their  force.  It  has  even  been  found  advisable  to 
acquire  an  unusual  line  of  work  to  fill  in  during  slack  times  in 
order  to  insure  a  steady  supply  of  work.  It  is  rather  sad  to  re- 
flect that  so  many  men  have  been  discharged  merely  on  the  un- 
restrained judgment  of  the  foreman.     That  custom  is  now  un- 


52  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

dergoing  a  change.  It  is  recognized  that  while  a  foreman  has 
the  authority  to  decide  that  a  man  is  unsuitable  for  him,  he  has 
no  right  to  consider  he  is  unfit  to  work  in  any  other  portion  of 
the  plant. 

The  machinery  for  hiring,  supervising  and  holding  labor  is 
best  handled  by  a  centralized  employment  department,  in  charge 
of  a  competent  man  versed  in  everything  that  pertains  to  the 
human  relation  in  industry.  Heretofore,  perhaps,  twenty  fore- 
men had  absolute  authority  in  hiring  and  firing.  The  plan  did 
not  work.  Foremen  do  not  and  can  not  keep  comprehensive  rec- 
ords upon  which  the  science  of  employment  is  based.  There- 
fore, the  employing  function  is  now  being  concentrated  and 
already  the  effect  is  demonstrating  that  specialization  in  employ- 
ment methods,  for  the  reduction  of  labor  turnover,  is  a  success. 


NEW  MEN   FOR  OLD' 

If  you  would  know  at  first  hand  the  big  weak  spot  in  our 
American -manufacturing  system,  throw  away  the  current  news- 
paper editorials  on  the  Menace  of  the  Unrestrained  Labor 
Strike,  and  set  your  alarm-clock  at  5.30  a.  m. 

It  is  worth  an  early  start;  for  you  are  on  the  track  of  an 
economic  wastage  so  colossal  as  to  match  its  hundred  dollars 
of  annual  loss  to  every  ten  dimes  of  financial  injury  wrung  as 
the  toll  of  the  industrial  deadlock. 

In  the  chill  of  the  gray  dawn,  dressed  in  the  oldest  clothing 
you  can  muster,  turn  your  face  from  your  famiHar  haunts  in 
the  ofiicc  section  of  the  city,  and  make  your  way  toward  the 
ranks  of  tall  chimneys  guarding  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 

Slip  quickly  by  the  silent  bulk  of  a  dead  factory,  union- 
picketed  without  and  police-sentried  within,  which  is  featured 
in  the  morning's  headlines ;  for  your  errand  is  not  to  the  plant 
bleeding  from  industrial  surgery  by  means  of  the  strikers'  axe, 
but  to  one  whose  line-shafting  is  seldom  idle,  and  whose  doors 
have  been  untroubled  for  twenty  years  by  the  shadow  of  a 
Walking  Delegate. 

You  are  in  search  of  what  is  ordinarily  reckoned  the  most 
commonplace  and  normal  of  all  the  daily  sights  in  any  manu- 
facturing community — a  nondescript  group  of  job-hunters,  tail- 

1  By  Lilian  Erskine  and  Treadwell  Cleveland,  Jr.  Everybody's.  36:414- 
2-}.     April,    1917. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        53 

ing  down  the  block  from  a  factory  employment  office's  closed 
door.  Nevertheless,  as  you  take  your  place  in  line,  and  stand 
elbow  to  elbow  with  them  in  the  keen  air  of  the  March  sunrise, 
you  have  become  a  unit  in  a  national  menace  to  the  employer, 
to  labor,  and  to  society  at  large. 

The  Old-Type  Employment  Agent 

At  the  sounding  of  the  whistle,  and  the  vibrant  coming  to 
life  of  dead  shafting  and  wheels  inside,  push  your  way  with  the 
others  through  the  now  opened  door,  and  await  your  turn  in  the 
process  of  sifting  the  chaff  of  the  old,  the  physically  broken, 
and  the  alcoholic,  from  the  residue  of  wheat  that  has  been  win- 
nowed by  the  threshing-machine  of  industry.  With  the  en- 
forced patience  of  the  job-hunter,  try  to  realize  (as  they  seem 
instinctively  to  do)  the  futility  of  appeal  from  the  absolute  au- 
thority of  the  little  man  of  the  hour  who  sits  behind  the  rail. 

Appreciate,  as  the  other  job-hunters  can  not,  however,  the 
heavy  odds  against  him  in  his  efforts  successfully  to  fill  those 
yellow  slips  upon  his  desk:  requisitions  sent  to  him  but  a  few 
hours  before  by  foremen  whom  he  knows  only  by  sight;  from 
expanded  departments  he  rarely  visits;  covering  work  with 
which  he  is  technically  unfamiliar,  and  subject  to  an  output- 
standard  of  which  he  has  barely  heard.  Fill  out,  at  last,  like 
the  rest  of  the  candidates,  the  personal  questions  on  an  applica- 
tion blank  (such  as  could  be  duplicated  in  forty  other  factories 
handling  an  absolutely  different  class  of  labor  and  production), 
and  eventually  find  yourself  "hired,"  rather  than  "employed"— 
with  a  ninety  per  cent,  chance  against  your  having  been  assigned 
to  the  position  or  department  for  which  you  are  physically  or 
mentally  fitted. 

The  Old-Type  Foreman 

Theoretically  you  represent  an  outlay  of  fifty  cents  to  the 
firm,  whose  trade-mark  has  been  stamped  for  a  generation  on 
the  pay-roll  upon  which  your  name  is  entered.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  (if  you  consent  to  see  the  experiment  through),  costliness 
will  dog  your  footsteps  from  the  moment  you  are  sent  up  to 
your  foreman,  whom  long  experience  with  the  hit-or-miss 
method  of  the  employment  office  has  prepared  for  the  worst. 


54  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

You  are  handicapped  by  lack  of  technical  training,  and  by 
your  need  for  supervision  as  to  the  handling  of  the  machine  on 
which  you  have  been  placed.  But  you  soon  discover  that  your 
foreman's  only  remedy  against  such  incompetence  is  to  follow 
the  traditions  in  which  he  has  been  trained,  and  to  threaten  to 
"fire"  you  as  arbitrarily  as  he  fired  the  long  line  of  your  pre- 
decessors. 

Antagonism  is  the  key-note  of  your  relations  with  the  "man 
higher  up."  And  this  is  fostered  by  the  tacit  bond  of  discontent 
which  springs  up  between  you  and  your  fellow-workers.  The 
noon  whistle  gives  you  your  choice  between  the  shop  gossip  over 
a  cold  dinner-pail  in  the  workroom  and  hurrying — unwashed 
and  as  you  come  off  your  machine — to  the  more  open  criticism 
passed  about  in  the  haven  of  a  near-by  saloon. 

But  popular  or  the  reverse,  you  take  no  orders  save  from 
your  foreman ;  and  j'ou  find  you  can  look  to  none  other  than  him 
for  instructions  in  the  rare  intervals  in  which  he  is  not  setting 
piece-rates ;  planning  the  work  assigned  to  his  machines ;  setting 
speeds  and  feeds;  deciding  on  tools  and  depths  of  cuts;  super- 
vising repairs  to  equipment;  checking  stock;  adjusting  wages; 
eliminating  congestion;  and  overseeing  the  thousand  and  one 
details  of  his  department. 

One  morning,  when  he  has  been  "jumped"  by  the  man  higher 
up,  and  needs  a  safety-valve  for  his  temper  and  over-tried 
nerves,  you  find  5'ourself  handing  in  your  dismissal  slip  at  the 
pay-window,  while  the  firm's  balance-sheet  unknowingly  car- 
ries the  various  costly  items  of  your  haphazard  instruction,  your 
unproductive  labor,  your  retardation  of  the  department's  output, 
your  breakage  of  tools,  and  your  spoiling  of  material. 

Familiar  Game  of  Battledore  and  Shuttlecock 

No  one  who  has  experienced  at  first-hand  the  "vicious  circle" 
of  our  still  persistent  hiriiTg  and  firing  system;  no  one  who  has 
played  even  a  voluntary  part  in  the  game  of  battledore  and  shut- 
tlecock between  the  old-type  foreman  and  the  untrained  emploj-- 
ment  agent,  can  be  convinced  that  his  experience  is  exceptional. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  (making  allowance  for  a  low  percentage 
of  insubordination,  incompetence,  and  "just  quitting"),  you  will 
find  that  you  can  duplicate  your  case  by  the  thousand  in  any 
manufacturing  center  of   the   country.     Whether  you  throw  in 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        55 

your  lot  with  the  unskilled  "Hunkie"  in  the  foundry,  or  with 
the  trained  mechanic  in  the  tool-shop,  you  will  learn  that,  ex- 
cepting under  the  best  standards  of  management,  your  livelihood 
and  your  hopes  of  advancement  may  lie  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  a  straw-boss,  who  neither  hires  you  nor  pays  you  a  copper  of 
your  wage. 

Yet  it  has  been  because  of  the  very  universality  of  the  un- 
regulated Labor  Turnover  thus  engendered — of  the  percentage 
of  workers  who  pass  into  and  out  of  our  factories  and  mills, 
and  the  continual  and  unnecessary  substitution  of  new  men  for 
old,  of  the  untrained  for  the  experienced — that  the  magnitude  of 
the  economic  losses  involved  has  so  long  escaped  widespread  de- 
tection.   The  ebb  and  flow  is  silent. 

The  very  fact  that  the  process  lacks  the  spectacular  features 
of  the  widely  advertised  strike,  renders  it  the  more  dangerous. 
Nevertheless,  it  can  be  proved  that  the  wastage  of  the  Labor 
Turnover  is  a  hundredfold  more  costly  than  that  of  the  strike. 
Unlike  the  strike,  however,  it  automatically  yields  no  hope  of 
industrial  or  social  gain,  in  better  standards  of  wage  or  of  living, 
or  of  broadened  purchasing  power.  Only  by  its  elimination  can 
its  constructive  possibilities  be  realized.  It  may  be  likened  to 
the  daily  strewing  of  countless  grains  of  sand  into  the  com- 
plicated machinery  of  the  national  output.  And  the  resulting 
loss  to  capital  and  to  society  at  large  has  been  as  final  and  com- 
plete as  it  was  needless. 

Who  Pays  the  Cost? 

If  you  imagine  that  your  experiment  in  a  factory  workroom 
concerns  you  more  than  the  firm  that  took  you  on,  remember 
the  machine  you  tried  to  run,  failed  "to  get  the  hang  of,"  and 
finally  left  out  of  commission  when  your  foreman  discharged 
you. 

"I  suppose  that's  typical  of  where  our  big  leak  has  been," 
the  General  Manager  confesses  a  few  days  later  to  the  efficiency 
expert  before  whom  he  lays  the  output-record  of  your  particular 
machine.  "You  see,  there's  a  case  where  we  threw  away  $2,500 
on  the  original  price  of  equipment;  and  a  forty  per  cent,  product 
is  all  we've  got — besides  that  bill  for  repairs — to  show  for  our 
money." 

The  visitor  runs  over  the  sheaf  of  yellow  slips  and  emits  a 


56  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

low  whistle.  "But  you've  had  thirty-two  men  on  that  machine 
in  ten  months,"  he  says.    "How  do  you  expect  to  get  an  output?" 

"What's  that  got  to  do  with  it?" 

"I  suppose  you  realize  that  in  addition  to  that  $2,500,  you 
wasted  nearly  $2,000  of  good  money  on  breaking  those  men  in. 
From  my  point  of  view,  it's  cheaper  to  throw  machinery  out  of 
the  window  than  to  run  a  Turnover  like  that." 

"I  don't  get  you." 

The  visitor  rises,  and,  going  to  the  window,  points  across  the 
factory  yard  to  a  group  of  men  entering  a  door  over  which  is 
posted  a  sign  of  "Help  Wanted."  "Supposing,  Mr.  Lawson,  we 
drop  the  question  of  machinery  for  a  while,"  he  suggests,  "and 
discuss  instead  what  your  employment  oflfice  is  costing  you." 

The  General  Manager  looks  relieved.  "I  know  that  labor's 
the  biggest  nuisance  we're  up  against,"  he  answers.  "But  so  far 
as  the  actual  cost  of  hiring  goes,  you  needn't  worry.  Hartley.  I 
understand  we've  cut  that  down  to  fifty  cents  a  head." 

"Taking  on  many?" 

"Oh,  I  hardly  know.  Of  course  I  don't  bother  with  those 
minor  details.  We  run  a  steady  force  here,  but  there's  bound  to 
be  some  shifting,  of  course,  out  of  a  payroll  of  six  hundred. 
Maybe  we  take  on  a  dozen,  more  or  less,  a  day.  Say,  Clancy, 
how  many  foremen's  requisitions  are  there  on  file  to-day? 
Twenty-one?    Didn't  know  it  ever  ran  so  heavy  as  that." 

"And  you  say  each  new  man  costs  you  only  half  a  dollar?" 

"That's  right,  isn't  it,  Clancy?  Yes;  fifty  cents  apiece  covers 
our  employment  costs." 

"Suppose,  just  for  the  sake  of  argument,"  Mr.  Hartley  re- 
sumes as  they  again  scat  themselves,  "that  I  tell  you  you're 
wrong,  and  that  fifty  cents  apiece  doesn't  begin  to  cover  those 
costs?  Suppose  I  told  you  that,  instead  of  fifty  cents  a  head, 
each  one  of  those  unskilled  men  you  took  on  to-day  will  cost 
you  from  $80  to  $100  before  he's  thoroughly  broken  in  and  worth 
his  full  day's  wage?  And  that  every  skilled  man  signed  up  this 
morning  will  stand  you  from  $250  to  $300?  And  that  some  of 
your  most  highly  specialized  workers  can't  be  replaced  under 
$1,000  apiece?" 

'That's  easy.     I'd  say  you  were  off  your  head." 

"But  suppose  I've  got  the  facts?" 

"You'll  have  to  show  me." 

"What  if  I  prove  to  you  that  you  haven't,  as  you  think,    a 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        57 

'steady  force'  ?  That  I've  already  informed  myself  that  your 
foremen  are  shooting  requisitions  at  your  employment  office  at 
an  average  rate  of  twelve  per  day?  That  in  twelve  months — to 
keep  up  the  'steady  force'  you  talk  about — you've  hauled  3,600 
men  through  your  gates?  That  you're  running  a  monthly  Labor 
Turnover  of  fifty  per  cent.,  and  a  yearly  one  of  six  hundred  per 
cent.?  That  during  the  last  year  and  a  half  covered  by  the  rec- 
ords I  found  on  file,  you've  practically  thrown  $350,000  of 
legitimate  profits  out  of  your  employment  window?" 

"The  thing's  utterly  preposterous.  Why,  you  say  yourself 
that  we  average  only  a  dozen  men  a  day!" 

"But  you'll  find,  Mr.  Lawson,  that  if  you  averaged  only 
twelve  a  week,  you'd  nevertheless  turn  over  your  entire  force 
once  a  year.  Don't  you  realize  that  if — out  of  every  hundred 
in  your  employ — only  five  a  month  either  move  away,  or  become 
ill,  or  disabled,  or  'just  quit'  for  any  trivial  cause,  a  Turnover 
of  sixty  per  cent.— or  a  majority  of  your  pay-roll — will  swing 
your  yearly  labor-balance  over  to  the  negative  side?" 

"Hold  on !  I  begin  to  follow  you.  But  when  you  talk  of 
throwing  money  out  of  the  window " 

"What  if  I  can  prove  that  I'm  putting  you  next  not  only  your 
own  worst  leak,  but  next  one  of  the  biggest  leaks  in  industry 
to-day?  Suppose  I  show  you  that  even  a  little  group  of  twenty 
of  you  manufacturers,  in  this  section  alone,  employed  69,000  new 
workers  this  year  to  keep  up  your  combined  regular  forces  of 
44,000  men?  Would  that  mean  nothing  to  you  in  dollars  and 
cents?  Couldn't  you  figvire  out  for  yourself  that  even  if  you 
should  cut  my  estimate  of  eighty  dollars  cost  a  head  in  halves — 
even  if  you  make  allowance  for  a  heavy  shifting  of  unskilled 
labor  in  the  less  highly  organized  departments — the  total  waste 
of  profits  for  all  of  your  concerns  together  was  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  $2,000,000  for  the  year?  How  long  do  men  like  you  ex- 
pect to  keep  it  up?  Do  you  think  you  can  get  away  with  this 
sort  of  thing  indefinitely?" 

The  general  manager  is  sitting  back  now,  thinking  hard,  and 
watching  the  smoke-rings  as  they  twist  themselves  out  of  shape 
against  the  invisible  currents  of  the  air.  Presently  he  leans  for- 
ward. 

"Mr.  Hartley,  if  you  can  prove  one-quarter  of  your  state- 
ments during  the  last  ten  minutes,"  he  says,  "you'll  be  putting 
me  next  a  bigger  thing  than  even  you  suspect.    Clancy,  will  you 


58  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ask  the  other  members  of  our  staff  to  come  here?  We'll  dig 
down  to  bed-rock  together  on  this  stuff.  And  if  you're  ready 
with  your  figures,  we  might  as  well  get  it  doped  out  right." 

The  Normal  Turnover 

While,  like  the  general  manager,  you  may  begin  to  be  con- 
vinced that  the  substitution  of  new  men  for  old  is  costly  policy 
for  industry,  you  are  likely  to  be  a  believer  in  the  widespread 
delusion  that  the  worker  (whether  skilled  or  unskilled)  is  a 
born  drifter.  The  fact  is  established,  however,  that  not  only  is 
the  Turnover  involuntary  on  the  part  of  labor,  but  that  no  firm 
is  warranted  in  seeing  it  slip  over  the  forty  per  cent,  danger- 
line,  without  a  thoroughgoing  effort  to  cure  the  weak  spots  in 
its  organization  of  which  such  excess  is  a  trustworthy  warning. 

If  j^ou  will  bear  in  mind  that  but  i  per  cent,  of  industrial  em- 
ployees die  annually;  that  from  but  4  to  5  per  cent,  are  replaced 
because  of  absence  due  to  prolonged  illness;  that  under  8  per 
cent,  leave  for  legitimate  reasons ;  that  only  5  per  cent,  are  liable 
to  discharge  for  cause;  that  a  6  per  cent,  allowance,  only,  is 
necessary  to  cover  those  employed  on  inevitably  temporary  work 
(such  as  building  and  construction  and  improvements)  ;  and  that 
a  6  per  cent,  leeway  is  sufficient  to  include  those  who — because 
of  race,  religion,  or  politics — may  prove  temperamentally  un- 
suited  to  shop  organizations,  you  will  begin  to  understand  the 
scientific  foundations  upon  which  each  firm  may  base  its  calcula- 
tions, as  to  the  limits  within  which  it  can  build  up  a  steady,  effi- 
cient force. 

Where  the  Blame  Rests 

"Well,  Mr.  Hartley,"  the  superintendent  begins  when  the 
half-dozen  men  are  seated  in  the  general  manager's  office,  "I 
understand  you  lay  our  financial  losses  to  our  unsuspected  Turn- 
over; and  put  the  responsibility  for  that  Turnover  up  to  the 
management." 

"Squarely.  I'm  here,  Mr.  Gray,  to  be  perfectly  frank  with 
you  all,  even  if  the  truth  is  unpalatable. 

"The  phrase  'Unregulated  Labor  Turnover'  is  polite  effi- 
ciency-English for  'Administrative  Incompetence.'  I've  run 
down  the  facts  of  the  normal  Turnover,  and  I  know  that  any- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        59 

thing  beyond  it  is  essentially  involuntary.  If  it  weren't  for  the 
demoralization  of  thousands  thrown  off  by  the  needlessly  sea- 
sonal trades,  only  a  small  minority  of  the  skilled  workers — and 
a  steadily  dwindling  majority  of  the  unskilled — would  be  drift- 
ers." 

"But  hold  on !"  exclaims  the  assistant  superintendent.  "You 
say  'the  needlessly  seasonal  trades.'  You  don't  mean  to  tell  us 
that  every  plant  can  run  on  an  even  keel  twelve  months  of  the 
year,  do  you?" 

"If  they  don't  learn  how  to  do  it,  they'll  be  crowded  to  the 
wall.  I  can  show  you  plants — once  seasonal — that  by  revolu- 
tionizing their  rush  methods  of  intermittent  manufacture,  of  ad- 
vertising, of  salesmanship,  and  of  order-placing,  and  by  occa- 
sionally laying  off  the  entire  force  one  day  a  week  when  they 
are  only  running  on  stocking-up  on  low-cost  standard  supplies, 
have  cut  their  Turnover  from  an  even  higher  figure  than  yours, 
to  well  within  a  fifty  per  cent,  limit." 

"And  save  money?" 

"And  made  money.  Don't  you  believe  me  when  I  say  that 
the  Turnover  is  your  biggest  leak?"    • 

"That's  what  we  want  to  clear  up,"  the  general  manager 
answers,  picking  up  pencil  and  pad.  "How  do  you  figure  on  the 
estimates  you  gave  me  a  while  ago  as  to  our  labor  losses  during 
the  last  year  and  a  half  ?  We've  been  sweating  blood  here  trying 
to  pare  costs  a  thousand  here  and  ten  thousand  there,  and  yet  you 
talk  of  our  having  thrown  $350,000  out  of  our  employment-office 
window,  and  nothing  to  show  for  it." 

Whafs  the  Real  Product  of  a  Factory  f 

"In  the  first  place,"  Mr.  Hartley  begins,  as  he  jots  down  some 
figures  on  the  sheet  of  paper  before  him,  "you've  got  to  learn 
the  latest  economic  truth  that  'the  real  product  of  a  factory  is 
not  materials  but  men.'  It's  as  dangerous  to  efficiency — which, 
after  all,  is  only  another  name  for  harmony — to  keep  on  ripping 
out  a  trained  worker  here  and  there  and  replacing  him  at  ran- 
dom, as  it  would  be  to  rip  out  essential  parts  of  your  machinery, 
and  then  replace  them  with  any  old  junk  you  happened  to  have 
handy  on  the  premises. 

"There  isn't  such  a  record  in  the  country  as  a  fifty-cent  max- 
imum cost  for  a  new    employee.    You  may   hold   the   overhead 


6o  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

charge  for  the  upkeep  of  the  employment  office  at  that  figure — 
provided  you  don't  follow  the  best  standards  for  investigating 
personal  character  and  living  conditions,  for  verifying  working 
references,  and  for  physical  examination  and  efficiency  tests. 
Even  if  your  office  charges  (including  the  salary  of  a  trained 
employment  agent)  stood  you  ten  dollars  apiece  for  every  man 
taken  on,  you'd  probably  find  it  a  big  economy  in  the  end.  For 
the  whole  wastage  of  the  Turnover  hinges  on  not  putting  the 
right  man  on  the  right  job  at  the  right  time,  and  on  your  not 
keeping  him  there  by  a  square  deal  after  you've  taken  the  trouble 
to  get  him. 

"I've  followed  this  up  in  about  every  kind  of  plant,  and  you 
can  take  it  from  me  that  the  first  thing  a  man's  up  against,  and 
the  first  expense  the  firm  that  hires  him  is  up  against,  is  his 
need  for  instruction." 

"What's  the  matter  with  his  foreman?"  demands  the  assistant 
superintendent. 

The  Problem  of  Instruction 

"There  are  usually  a  good  many  things  the  matter  with  his 
foreman.  I'll  come  to  that  later.  So  far  as  the  instruction  goes, 
however,  the  trouble  is  that  the  foreman  hasn't  the  time,  or  in 
most  cases  the  faculty,  to  help  him.  Just  knowing  how  a  thing 
ought  to  be  done,  doesn't  necessarily  mean  that  a  man  is  qualified 
to  pass  the  information  on.  Particularly  when  a  foreman  has  to 
do  it  so  often  that  he  is  heartily  sick  of  the  job. 

"Look  here!  Let's  try  to  be  fair.  You  put  a  foreman  over 
a  department  to  get  the  stuff  out;  and  then  you  jump  all  over 
him  because  he  can't  do  it  with  one  hand,  while  he  runs  a  school 
for  new  employees  with  the  other.  If  he  trains  his  men  thor- 
oughly, in  a  plant  like  this,  he's  bound  to  fall  down  on  oversee- 
ing his  end  of  the  production.  If  he  passes  the  new  man  over 
to  some  other  worker,  it's  the  same  story.  Either  the  fellow- 
worker  won't  bother  with  him,  or  somehow  he  can't  get  the  in- 
formation across.  Or  else,  while  he  is  doing  it,  maybe  for  sev- 
eral days  running,  he  loafs  on  his  job,  and  so  balls  up  the  bal- 
ance of  production. 

"I've  seen  loo  machines  standing  idle  on  one  floor,  because 
(in  the  department  next  preceding  it)  two  new  men  had  smashed 
their  machines,  and  blocked  the  whole  flow  of  output  for  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       6i 

factory.  No  one  had  warned  tliem  when  they  were  put  on  their 
machines  to  'turn  her  over  easy'  before  they  started  up.  So  they 
had  simply  grabbed  the  belt-shifter,  started  full  speed,  and  in 
addition  to  the  damaged  machinery,  they  landed  two  fellow- 
workers  in  the  hospital,  with  broken  pieces  of  steel  in  them." 

"You  don't  mean  to  advocate  having  special  men  to  train  new 
employees,  do  you?"  queries  the  general  manager. 

"You  hardly  get  a  really  one  hundred  per  cent,  efficient  force 
of  men,  in  a  highly  organized  plant,  without  trained  instructors. 
Nor  can  you  hold  your  force  steady,  after  you've  got  them, 
without  constant  supervision  to  make  sure  that  each  individual 
standard  is  being  maintained  at  the  high-water  mark." 

"You  think,  then,  that  we  probably  waste  several  dollars 
while  teaching  a  new  man  as  we  do  it  now?" 

"If  you'll  run  over  the  figures  I've  just  been  jotting  down, 
Mr.  Lawson,  you'll  find  why  I  was  more  interested  in  your  Turn- 
over than  in  your  cost  of  recent  equipment." 

Cost  of  Instruction 

Although  the  lack  of  expert  supervision  of  new  employees  is 
one  of  the  leading  factors  in  the  shifting  of  labor,  it  is  only 
lately  that  students  of  the  question  have  been  able  to  offer  such 
figures  as  the  expert  now  offers  to  the  general  manager — a  mini- 
mum schedule  of  actual  instruction  costs,  based  on  the  experi- 
ence of  some  of  the  leading  employers  in  this  country. 

These  are  listed  as: 

Unskilled   laborers    $2.00  to  $3.00 

Clerical    force    4.00         7.00 

Handy   men   and  helpers S.oo 

Skilled   mechanics    7.50        10.00 

Semi-skilled    workers    iS-oo        18.00 

Add  to  these  approximate  figures  the  initial  cost  of  50  cents 
to  $10.00  for  employment  costs,  and  you  have  the  first  two  items 
of  outlay  for  the  employers  involved  in  the  substitution  of  new 
men  for  old. 

Cost  of  Damage  to  Equipment 

In  addition  to  the  ten  odd  dollars  wasted  on  lost  time  in  a 
majority  of  cases,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  is  primarily  the 
new  man  who  breaks  tools  and  wrecks  machinery.  The  more 
costly  the  equipment,  the  higher  must  be  the  estimate  of  the  loss 


62  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

to  the  employer.  Hardly  a  firm  that  has  worked  out  this  angle 
of  the  expense  of  the  Turnover,  is  willing  to  list  the  damage  to 
equipment  at  less  than  an  average  of  seven  dollars  per  head. 

Handy    men    and    helpers $7.00  to  $10.00 

Skilled    mechanics    1.00  10.00 

Less    skilled    mechanics 5.00  10.00 

Even  with  this  third  estimate  added,  you  have  only  cleared 
away  the  preliminaries  of  employment,  instruction,  and  breakage 
costs.  You  are  now  ready  to  deal  with  the  more  serious  aspects, 
and  the  less  easily  determined  financial  wastage  of  the  Turn- 
over. 

Cost  of  Lowered  Production 

No  one  need  go  into  a  factory  himself  in  order  to  realize 
that  at  entry  no  new  man  can  measure  up  to  even  a  low  standard 
of  production.  There  are  shops  that  have  proved  the  fact  (from 
their  own  experience)  that  it  takes  the  average  new  mechanic 
from  one  to  three  months  to  meet  the  time-limits  of  his  fore- 
man. As  a  matter  of  actual  record,  he  falls  from  three  to  five 
hours  a  day  behind  the  pace  of  the  seasoned  piece-worker.  But 
this  phase  of  the  question  is  economically  bigger  than  the  indi- 
vidual waste  of  wage. 

In  a  well-organized  plant  each  division  depends  for  efficiency 
upon  the  continuous  output  of  the  division  next  preceding. 
Sometimes  the  slowing  down  of  pace  due  to  the  breaking  in  of 
new  employees  is  startling.  It  is  because  every  minute  so  wasted 
leaves  its  mark  on  the  balance-sheet  of  the  firm  that  you  will 
find  this  the  most  costly  aspect  of  the  "hiring  and  firing"  prob- 
lem. 

For  the  sake  of  fairness  to  a  wide  range  of  industry,  take 
the  following  minimum  estimate  of  the  costs  of  reduced  produc- 
tion, which  is  based  on  the  acknowledged  losses  involved  for 
the  less  highly  specialized  type  of  plant : 

Unskilled    workers     $S.oo  to  $8.00 

Semi-skilled    mechanics     :8.oo        30.00 

Skilled   workers    20.00        34.00 

Piece-workers,    miscellaneous    helpers....  25.00        33-oo 

Clerical    force     20.00 

We  must  realize,  however,  that  these  figures  do  not  attempt 
to  cover  the  more  demoralizing  factors  resulting  from  such  de- 
crease of  output.  The  sense  of  friction,  of  uncertainty,  and 
antagonism  developed  under  such  conditions,  is  as   destructive 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        63 

to  the  machinery  of  shop-efficiency  as  if  oil  of  vitriol  were  to  be 
habitually  substituted  for  a  lubricant. 

The  Cost  of  Spoiled  Work 

For  the  same  reason,  any  calculation  as  to  spoiled  work  must 
be  unsatisfactory,  because  it  is  based  on  incomplete  data  which 
will  vary  in  the  case  of  each  individual  plant.  Nevertheless,  the 
following  estimate  is  at  least  worth  quoting,  because  it  is  drawn 
from  losses  in  a  wide  enough  variety  of  factories  to  make  it  a 
danger-sign  on  the  pathway  along  which  no  factory  manage- 
ment should  persist  in  traveling: 

Handy  men   and  helpers $5.00  to  $10.00 

Highly    skilled    mechanics 10.00         15.00 

Less    skilled    15.00         20.00 

Something  Bigger  than  the  Employer's  Direct  Loss 

The  superintendent  passes  the  penciled  memoranda  to  the 
general  manager  with  a  confirmatory  nod.  "So  that's  how  you 
ran  up  that  eighty  dollars — including  employment  costs — you 
loaded  on  us.  Hartley." 

"I'll  guarantee  that  not  a  new  man  entered  your  gates  during 
the  last  year  who  cost  you  a  copper  less." 

"Yet  you,  yourself,  halved  that  eighty  dollars  when  you  were 
talking  about  the  group  of  twenty  firms  having  thrown  away 
nearly  $2,000,000  of  profits  during  the  last  twelve  months." 

"I  did  that  because  this  stuff  is  so  new  I  wanted  to  be  con- 
servative. Yours  is  a  highly  organized  plant,  where  the  costs  of 
shifting  labor  run  higher  than  in  the  rough  trades  employing 
few  skilled  workers.  Nevertheless,  I  wanted  to  strike  a  fair 
average  for  all  concerned. 

"You  men  think  these  figures  too  startling  only  because  it's  a 
new  slant  on  old  problems  that  you've  accepted  much  as  you 
accept  the  law  of  gravitation.  Their  financial  menace  lies  in  the 
fact  that  they  can  be  duplicated  at  random  in  any  manufacturing 
center  of  the  country.  Of  course  I'm  simply  talking  business 
now,  and  giving  you  what — from  my  point  of  view — is  the  less 
costly  dollars-and-cents  end  of  the  Turnover." 

"Does  that  mean  you  think  there's  something  bigger  involved 
than  even  the  direct  loss  to  the  employer?" 

"Something  so  big,  Mr.  Gray,  that  the  calculations  of  simple 
arithmetic  can't  cover  it.    Look  here.    I  don't  mean  to  get  senti- 


64  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

mental  over  the  worker.  These  days  he's  out  for  something 
more  substantial  than  sympathy.  But  I've  been  in  this  Turnover 
game  at  first-hand,  and  I  know  pretty  well  how  it  hits  the 
decent  chaps  who  get  their  walking  papers. 

"I'm  not  fool  enough  to  think  that  all  foremen  are  'petty 
tyrants,'  or  that  all  of  the  men  they  fire  are  suffering  angels. 
The  average  foreman  is  what  generations  of  the  man  higher  up 
have  made  him.  He's  the  product  of  the  system  he's  been  trained 
in,  and  that  gives  him  a  power  he  hasn't  been  educated  to 
wield.  But  there  isn't  a  factor  to-day  that  constributes  more  to 
unemployment,  and  the  so-called  'unrest'  of  labor,  or  that  spreads 
more  of  bitterness,  and  the  belief  in  the  duty  of  antagonism 
toward  the  authority  of  the  employer,  than  the  existence  of  the 
unregulated  Turnover.  And  as  long  as  you  let  it  remain  un- 
checked, you'll  find  the  inevitable  by-products  of  your  factories 
are  idleness,  discouragement,  intemperance,  and  poverty. 

"I  don't  need  to  ask  if  any  one  of  you  men  has  ever  given  a 
thought  to  what  probably  went  on  in  the  minds  of  those  two 
thousand-odd  workers  you  wasted  last  year;  men  who,  for  no 
legitimate  reason,  walked  out  of  your  factory  gates  for  the  last 
time  on  the  say-so  of  Tom  This,  or  Mike  That.  I  tell  you 
frankly  that  it's  no  wonder  men  come  out  of  some  of  these 
plants  ready  to  go  in  for  any  form  of  organization  that  will 
help  them  to  get  back  at  the  system  they  realize  no  man  is 
strong  enough  to  break  down  alone. 

"I  could  show  you  two  hundred  skilled  workers,  whom  I've 
talked  with — decent  men,  every  one  of  them — who  were  thrown 
out  without  cause  or  warning  from  one  plant  last  year.  To-day 
they're  doing  more  to  bi^eed  class  bitterness,  and  to  foment  labor 
disaffection  in  this  locality,  than  all  the  I.  W.  W.'s  the  police  are 
ever  likely  to  round  up. 

"You'll  never  again  convince  any  one  of  those  two  hundred 
men  that  there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  a  square  deal  between 
capital  and  labor.  And  this  instance  isn't  exceptional.  It's  what 
goes  on  all  over  the  country.  It's  the  logical  outcome  of  a  rot- 
ten sj'stcm.  But  it  hits  back  not  only  at  the  industry  that  fosters 
it,  but  eventually  at  the  whole  social  fabric." 

Employment  Managers'  Association 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  signs  of  the  change  in  the  relations 
which  may   some   day  develop   between  capital   and  labor,  has 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        65 

been  the  formation,  in  a  dozen  states,  of  Employment  Managers' 
Associations  to  discuss  those  errors  in  shop-organization  that 
he  back  of  the  unregulated  Turnover. 

The  records  of  the  companies  represented  (who  during  the 
past  five  years  have  proved  their  ability  to  conquer  employment 
problems  by  a  readjustment  of  values  which  placed  equipment 
before  men)  speak  for  themselves  upon  their  balance-sheets. 
Not  only  have  they  demonstrated  the  commonsense  basis  of 
wage,  hour,  and  working  conditions  essential  for  keeping  the 
Turnover  within  its  normal  limits,  but  they  are  doing  pioneer 
work  in  establishing  equilibrium  in  the  seasonal  trades  and  in 
developing  that  spirit  of  common  fellowship  which  we  are  be- 
ginning to  understand  is  vital  to  industrial  efficiency. 

How  Some  Companies  Have  Increased  Profits 

As  a  typical  example  may  be  quoted  the  experience  of  a 
member  of  a  certain  firm  (handicapped  by  a  seasonal  output) 
who  took  over  the  administration  of  the  employment  office,  and 
set  himself  to  investigate  the  causes  that  lay  back  of  a  costly 
Turnover  of  150  per  cent. 

As  a  result  he  raised  the  standards  of  equipment  and  of  tools, 
and  developed  a  scientific  employment  and  service  division,  ex- 
tending the  functions  of  the  employment  office  so  as  to  include 
the  training  and  hygienic  supervision  of  new  employees.  He 
forbade  the  discharge  of  employees  except  through  the  axithor- 
ized  channels  of  the  employment  and  welfare  division.  He 
raised  the  average  weekly  wage  by  thirty-seven  per  cent,  and 
reduced  the  weekly  working  hours  from  fifty-four  to  forty- 
eight. 

He  made  provision  for  special  instruction  of  foreign  em- 
ployees ;  for  periodic  physical  examination,  with  special  care  of 
teeth  and  eyes;  for  sanitaiy  standards  in  workrooms,  dressing- 
rooms,  toilets,  lavatories,  lunch-rooms,  and  rest  and  recreation 
rooms.  He  organized  a  systematic  follow-up  system  for  ab- 
sentees. 

He  reduced  seasonal  fluctuations  in  production  by  means  of 
better  methods  of  advertising,  purchasing,  and  order-placing; 
and  also  by  a  uniform  reduction  of  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the 
w^eekly  working  hours  throughout  the  plant,  during  the  w-eeks 
when  trade  conditions  did  not  warrant  a  full-time  schedule. 


66  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Nor  did  he  rest  there.  He  substituted  the  transfer  for  the 
discharge  of  employees  who  fell  below  the  standard.  He  sys- 
tematized advancement  as  a  reward  for  efficiency ;  eliminated 
accidents;  reduced  tardiness  to  one-third  of  one  per  cent,  of  the 
working  force,  and  he  reduced  the  number  of  absentees  to  one 
and  one-quarter  per  cent,  (of  which  only  one-half  of  one  per 
cent,  were  without  excuse). 

He  established  a  rate  of  pay  for  advance  notice  of  quitting, 
adding  a  day's  pay  for  each  week  of  notice,  not  to  exceed  four 
weeks. 

Finally,  he  assured  daily  contact  with  the  employment  and  ser- 
vice division  to  at  least  one-fifth  of  the  force,  with  the  oppor- 
tunity to  all  for  complaint  or  suggestions. 

That  this  was  an  experiment  in  good  business,  rather  than 
social  philanthropy,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  reduced  the 
Turnover  from  150  per  cent,  to  33.5  per  cent. ;  and  that  owing 
to  increased  efficiency,  manufacturing  costs  were  reduced  by  10 
per  cent.,  and  production  was  increased  by  42  per  cent. 


PROBLEMS   OF  LABOR   MAINTENANCE 

THE  HANDLING  OF  MEN  ^ 

In  considering  tlie  subject  of  handling  men,  I  take  it  that 
it  should  be  discussed  from  the  standpoint  of  that  larger  rela- 
tionship which  is  the  very  foundation   of  industrial   felicity. 

No  two  of  us  may  have  the  same  idea  as  to  the  methods  to 
be  employed  in  handling  men  success fulh'.  We  may  disagree 
as  to  means;  but  we  believe  we  can  all  get  together  when  it 
comes  to  matters  of  principle ;  and  we  are  sure  that  all  of  us 
are  seeking  the  same  result — the  greatest  good  for  all  con- 
cerned. 

Before  looking  into  the  ways  and  means  of  successfully 
handling  men,  let  us  note  for  a  moment  what  should  be  the 
attitude  of  the  employer  to  his  men. 

In  the  first  place  (and  it  may  sound  platitudinous  and 
academic  to  say  it,  but  it  is  none  the  less  true)  it  should  be 
distinctly  understood  that  there  can  be  no  successful  policy  of 
dealing  with  men  where  the  spirit  of  confidence  is  lacking. 
Confidence  is  the  foundation  upon  which  harmonious  relation- 
ship must  be  erected,  and  efficiency — the  result  we  are  all  seek- 
ing— is  nothing  more  than  a  by-product  of  harmony. 

Every  employer  is  in  business  to  make  money — so  is  every 
employee.  Both  are  selfish — and  both  should  be — for  without 
that  spirit  of  selfishness,  which  is  the  very  basis  of  progress, 
the  world  would  stand  still.  Assuming  this  statement  to  be 
true,  the  question  is  how  can  this  confidence  between  employer 
and  employee  be  secured?  I  have  my  opinion  but  it  may  not 
agree  with  yours.  But  that  does  not  matter  much.  What  I  be- 
lieve and  what  you  believe  are  only  incidents — mere  opinions — 
unless  we  can  back  up  our  belief  with  something  practical — 
something  that  has  been  tried  and  something  that  has  worked 
— that  has  secured  results. 

Before   taking   up    some   of   the    methods    of   handling   men 

^By  W.  A.  Grieves,  Welfare  Supervisor  of  the  Jeffrey  Manufacturing 
Co.  Bulletin.  Efficiency  Society,  Inc.,  N.  Y.  Vol.  I,  No.  4.  April  30, 
1915- 


68  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

successfully,  I  want  to  discuss  a  certain  phase  of  this  indus- 
trial relationship  in  -which  every  man  here  is  vitally  interested. 
If  you  are  an  employer  employing  an  average  of  2200  men  and 
are  shown  that  it  is  costing  you  on  an  average  of  about  $88,- 
000.00  more  each  year  than  it  should  cost  you  to  maintain  this 
force,  you  are  at  once  interested.  You  will  at  least  listen  to 
some  figures  which  you  will  agree  are  reasonably  correct. 

Knowing  the  methods  we  have  adopted  at  our  plant  and 
through  which  we  believe  very  favorable  results  have  been 
secured,  we  were  satisfied  that  these  principles  could  be  ap- 
plied to  other  concerns. 

Thinking  that  perhaps  our  experience  was  abnormal  and 
would  not  be  at  all  fair  to  take  as  one  sufficiently  accurate 
upon  which  to  base  reliable  conclusions,  we  sent  out  letters  to 
forty  different  concerns,  covering  a  broad  field  of  metal  trade 
manufacturing  throughout  the  middle  western  states.  This 
letter  gave  a  brief  statement  of  our  experience.  How  we  had 
been  able  in  five  years,  through  the  adoption  of  different 
methods  to  reduce  the  cost  of  maintaining  our  force  on  an  av- 
erage of  $24,000.00  per  year. 

Fifty  per  cent,  or  twenty  of  these  firms  replied  to  our  let- 
ter and  gave  us  their  experience  for  the  past  j'ear.  Others 
wrote  us  stating  that  while  they  would  like  very  much  to  give 
us  their  experience,  it  had  been  so  deplorably  bad  they  felt 
diffident  in  putting  it  upon  paper;  but  added  that  if  we  would 
visit  them  they  would  be  glad  to  tell  us  the  whole  story.  The 
replies  of  these  twenty  firms  revealed  the  fact  that  to  keep  an 
average  force  of  44,000  men  employed  during  the  past  year, 
they  Avere  compelled  to  employ  a  total  of  69,000  men. 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  us  analyze  these  figures  for  a  few  min- 
utes and  see  what  they  reveal,  for  I  believe  if  more  care  and 
thought  were  exerted  to  find  out  why  men  quit  their  jobs  so 
frequently,  this  condition  could  be  improved,  and  there  would 
be  more  cash  to  our  credit  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

But  there  will  always  be  a  certain  percentage  of  any  force 
of  men  that  will  change.  This  percentage  will  be  composed  of 
those  who  will  die,  or  about  one  per  cent;  those  w^ho  are 
compelled  to  leave  their  employment  on  account  of  sickness 
and  are  discharged,  will  perhaps  amount  to  five  per  cent;  those 
who  because  of  domestic  troubles  and  conditions  of  climate 
will  move  and  constitute  another,  say  ten  per  cent;  and  lastly. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        69 

there  will  always  be  mistakes  made  in  selecting  the  right  man 
for  the  right  place,  and  this  may  amount  to  say  t\vent>-five 
per  cent. 

To  maintain  this  average  working  force  of  44,000  men  in 
these  twenty  diflferent  plants,  taking  the  above  percentages 
there  should  only  have  been  hired  27,600.  Instead  the  figures 
show  that  69,000  were  hired,  or  a  total  of  41,400  more  than  can 
be  accounted   for. 

To  arrive  at  the  financial  loss  of  this  evidently  unjustifi- 
able condition,  I  have  grouped  these  employees  into  the  fol- 
lowing classes : 

1.  Highh-  skilled  mechanics. 

2.  Semi-skilled  mechanics. 

3.  Helpers  and  handy  men. 

4.  Laborers. 

5.  Clerks. 

To  get  more  clearly  before  our  minds  the  economic  loss  in- 
volved, let  us  distribute  the  cost  as  follows: 

1.  Expense  incident  to  employing. 

2.  New  employees,  no  matter  how  competent,  require  in- 
struction from  the  foreman  or  department  head. 

3.  Breakage  of  tools  and  machinery  occasioned  by  new 
men. 

4.  Spoiled  work. 

5.  Decreased  production. 

Taking  these  five  divisions  of  distributions  and  analyzing 
them  we  can  find  what  they  represent  in  dollars. 

Undoubtedly  the  clerical  work  in  hiring  is  the  least  ex- 
pensive. It  includes  the  interview  of  the  applicant  at  the  em- 
ployment office;  the  cost  of  sending  men,  in  good  times  at 
least,  into  other  fields  to  secure  new  men,  and  the  cost  of  ad- 
vertising. Added  to  this  is  the  expense  of  clerical  help  in 
getting  the  man's  references,  if  such  are  required,  getting  his 
record  entered  at  the  emplojanent  office  and  the  time  depart- 
ment. Then  when  he  leaves  the  employ  there  is  additional 
clerical  expense  in  discharge  papers,  pay-offs,  etc.  I  think 
this  cost  can  very  conservatively  be  placed  at  fifty  cents  per 
man. 

Second,  comes  instruction  expense.  This  may  be  said  to 
depend  largely  upon  the  nature  of  the  work  and  the  skill  and 
experience  of  the  new  employee. 


70  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Class  four,  the  unskilled  production  laborer,  will  cost  one 
or  two  dollars  each,  while  experiments  made  in  our  own  ma- 
chine shops  show  that  ten  dollars  is  not  too  high  to  place  upon 
the  average  skilled  mechanic.  If  the  skilled  man's  instruction 
expense  is  ten  dollars,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  ex- 
pense for  semi-skilled  men  will  be  at  least  one  and  a  half  this 
amount.  Class  three,  the  helpers  and  handy  men,  will  require 
at  least  five  dollars  worth  of  instruction ;  while  training  of  new 
clerks  will  add  a  few  more  dollars.  Let  us  place  the  average 
cost  of  instruction,  to  be  conservative,  at  $20.00  per  man. 

To  figure  the  cost  of  increased  wear  and  tear  and  damage 
done  to  tools  and  machinery  is  difficult,  but  as  nearly  as  we 
have  been  able  to  arrive  at  it,  the  figures  have  been  about  one 
dollar  for  the  highly  skilled  mechanic  and  seven  to  ten  dol- 
lars for  the  helpers  and  handy  men.  We  will  place  this  at 
$7.00. 

The  loss  due  to  reduced  production  is  undoubtedly  the 
largest  item  of  all.  Our  own  experience  has  been  that  mechan- 
ics who  have  been  in  our  employ  for  a  period  of  six  months  or 
more  will  gain  on  an  average  of  three  to  five  hours  time  per 
day;  while  it  takes  the  average  new  mechanic  from  one  month 
to  three  months  to  be  able  to  meet  the  time  limits.  At  the 
average  wage  of  35  cents  per  hour  the  old  men  will  gain  say 
four  hours  per  day.  At  50  per  cent  of  their  day  rate  they 
will  gain  70  cents  per  day  over  the  man  who  can  merely  make 
the  limits.  Since  the  man  who  makes  a  gain  of  70  cents  per 
day  has  also  saved  the  same  amount  for  the  company,  you  can 
readily  figure  that  in  one  month  of  24  working  days,  from  this 
source  alone  the  company  is  losing  $16.80;  and  if  we  put  the 
average  time  lost  at  two  months,  the  loss  will  total  up  to  $33.60 
per  man  for  decreased  production,  in  classes  one  and  two. 

Like  the  cost  of  wear  and  breakage  of  tools  and  machinery, 
the  expense  incident  to  spoiled  work  is  hard  to  get  at;  but 
from  experience  secured  from  other  concerns  as  well  as  our 
own  we  believe  we  are  conservative  when  we  place  this  loss 
at  fifteen  dollars  for  skilled  and  semi-skilled  mechanics  and 
five  dollars  for  handy  men  and  helpers. 

These  losses  total  up  to  $81.10  per  man.  But  to  be  con- 
servative we  will  reduce  this  amount  to  $40.00  per  man  av- 
erage. This  will  represent  to  each  one  of  these  twenty  firms, 
averaging  their  employees  at  2200  men  each,  a  total  of  $88,000 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        71 

more  each  year  than  it  should  cost  them.  Or,  $1,760,000.00  for 
the  combined  concerns.  And  we  have  not  counted  the  in- 
creased overhead. 

You  ma}'  saj-  that  much  of  this  hiring  and  shifting  of  men 
has  been  due  to  business  conditions,  and  tliat  because  a  plant 
will  be  busy  one  month  and  slack  tlie  next  and  running  full 
force  the  third,  this  great  changing  is  the  result.  This  is  not 
the  case,  however,  ^^'e  took  particular  care  to  address  our 
letter  to  such  firms  whose  business  is  steady  the  year  round, 
and  with  the  exception  of  two  plants  they  had  been  running 
steady  during  the  time   covered   by  these  figures. 

I  bring  this  rather  lengthy  but  important  list  of  figures  be- 
fore 3'ou  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  need  of  something 
being  done  that  will  create  more  stability  in  the  ranks  of  those 
who  work  in  our  industrial  institutions. 

Heretofore  the  relationship  between  employer  and  em- 
ployed has  been  founded  upon  somebody's  guess  or  opinion, 
and  in  most  cases  they  have  been  v»rong,  for  no  one  man's  ex- 
perience is  sufficiently  broad  and  varied  to  permit  him  to  lay 
down  rules  for  all  the  rest  of  us.  There  must  be  a  bodj' — a 
mass — of  experience  and  opinions,  which  may  collectively  be- 
come the  basis  of  what  shall  be  the  rules  that  are  to  govern  us. 
And  these  rules,  whatever  they  are  to  be,  must  chiefly  take 
into  consideration  the  element  of  human  nature. 

But,  you  answer,  "There  must  be  some  solution ;  some  road 
must  be  open  through  which  employer  and  employee  may  walk 
together  in  better  understanding  of  each  other's  interests,"  and 
you  have  a  right  to  believe  this  is  true.  The  great  question  is 
how  shall  it  be  done?  I  don't  know.  You  may  not  have  a  so- 
lution either.  But  one  thing  we  can  easily  learn,  and  that  is 
that  it  can  only  be  brought  about  through  a  higher  intelligence 
— a  better  understanding  of  the  motives  of  both. 

The  figures  which  we  have  given  you  must  command  your 
consideration  and  investigation.  Your  good  sense  will  not  per- 
mit you,  if  you  employ  two  thousand  men,  to  ignore  the  leak 
of  $88,000.00  per  year  through  a  source  which  may  be  pre- 
vented. If  some  one  points  out  to  you  that  through  some 
change  of  plan  in  your  purchasing  department,  j-ou  can  save 
$10,000.00  per  year,  you  will  at  once  adopt  the  plan,  if  you  are 
convinced  that  by  the  adoption  of  different  tactics  in  your  sales 
organization   3'our     business    can    be     increased       another    ten, 


72  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

twenty,  or  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  year,  you  will  at  once  get 
busy  and  make  a  change. 

If  some  one  calls  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  through 
uneducated  and  untactful  salesmen  you  are  losing  business  to 
the  amount  of  another  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  you  will  make  haste  to  educate  the  salesman. 

The  fact  that  in  twenty  dififerent  firms  during  the  past  year 
there  were  hired  nearly  42,000  more  men  than  should  have  been 
hired,  says  there  is  something  wrong.  It  would  indicate  that 
our  systems  of  hiring,  or  dealing  with  men  after  they  arc  hired, 
are  deplorably  lacking. 

But  what  you  are  specifically  interested  in  after  these  facts 
have  been  brought  to  your  attention,  is,  what  is  the  remedy? 
As  I  said  before,  I  don't  know  that  I  have  any.  I  do  know, 
however,  and  so  do  you,  that  there  are  some  underlying  prin- 
ciples which  may  be  laid  hold  of  and  from  which  may  be  de- 
veloped a  partial  solution  at  least. 

Industry  today  is  composed  of  two  major  distinctions — one 
is  production,  the  other  is  selling.  Labor,  skilled  and  unskilled, 
is  employed  in  production.  Skilled  and  perhaps  less  skilled 
have  been  engaged  in  selling. 

But  what  has  been  your  attitude  toward  the  inefficient 
salesman?  In  some  cases  you  have  discharged  him.  But  you 
discovered  that  when  you  discharged  a  man  for  not  measuring 
up  to  the  standard,  generally  speaking,  you  were  not  better  oflf. 
You  found  out  that  in  replacing  him  you  took  just  the  same 
chances  of  getting  as  inefficient  a  one  in  his  place.  So  you 
reasoned  that  the  best  solution  to  your  difficulty  was  to  educate 
the  salesman. 

Why  not  use  exactly  the  same  means,  and  perhaps  in  the 
same  way,  to  the  same  end  in  the  manufacturing  departments 
of  your  organization?  I  feel  safe  in  saying  that  there  is  not  a 
manufacturer  here  tonight,  who  has  a  business  of  any  con- 
siderable dimension  who  does  not  maintain  some  kind  of  an 
advertising  department.  Your  advertising,  as  applied  to  your 
selling  department,  has  become  more  or  less  of  a  science.  If 
you  bring  out  a  new  article  for  the  market — an  article  which 
you  believe  has  a  place  in  the  economic  order  of  things — what 
is  your  first  step?  To  get  it  before  the  people,  of  course.  But 
people  are  not  always  ready  to  grasp  what  you  have  created — 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  n 

the  trade  does  not  see  the  benefit  of  your  device,  and  what  is 
your  plan  of  attack?    Publicity  without  a  doubt. 

You  engage  experts — men  skilled  in  the  science  of  publicity 
— to  get  out  letters,  catalogues,  booklets,  etc.,  buy  space  in  the 
newspapers  and  trade  journals  and  by  every  means  at  your 
command  you  would  get  at  the  man  behind  the  order  with  the 
reason  why,  the  merit,  the  economy  of  what  you  have  for  sale. 

Your  efforts  at  first  may  not  succeed,  but  you  are  not  dis- 
couraged. You  believe  in  your  product — you  are  convinced 
that  it  will  make  good  if  it  can  be  given  a  trial. 

You  believe  still  that  publicity  has  merit — it  is  only  some 
of  the  details  of  the  plan  that  have  been  overlooked,  and  you 
are  again  hammering  away  at  the  indifferent  public.  If  this 
plan  of  attack  fails,  you  immediately  take  up  another,  and  an- 
other until  the  walls  of  indifference  and  prejudice  are  battered 
down  and  you  find  your  product  doing  all  that  you  have 
claimed  it  would  do. 

From  our  point  of  view,  we  cannot  see  any  reason  why 
these  same  tactics  of  education  cannot  be  applied  to  problems 
of  manufacturing.  But,  before  we  advertise  or  educate,  we 
should  be  pretty  sure  that  it  is  the  right  way,  the  honest  way — 
the  intention,  the  spirit  of  honesty  must  be  there  even  if  it  has 
unintentional  defects,  and  as  fast  as  these  defects  are  discov- 
ered they  must  be  made  right,  just  as  in  the  case  when  we  put 
on  the  market  a  new  product  that  we  believe  will  fill  an  eco- 
nomic need. 

These  are  days  of  honest  dealings.  Men  who  expect  to 
remain  in  business  know  that  misrepresentations  re-act,  that 
chickens  come  home  to  roost.  And  men  in  business  today  do 
not  recognize  this  necessarily  for  any  particular  moral  reason, 
but  for  the  scientific  reason  that  it  is  good  business. 

This  same  principle,  therefore,  must  prevail  in  handling  or 
dealing  with  men.  In  our  selling  we  have  learned  that  a  policy 
of  getting  all  we  can,  and  giving  as  little  as  possible  in  return, 
does  not  pay.  The  way  to  get  more,  is  to  give  more,  and  the 
way  to  ultimately  get  nothing  is  to  give  nothing. 

The  mutually  profitable  business  therefore,  is  the  only  one 
that  will  exist,  and  the  mutually  profitable  plan  of  dealing  with 
men  is  the  only  one  that  will  endure. 

As  we  have  already  noted,  the  first  plan  of  attack  is  through 
the  medium  of   education.     The  better   educated  a   man   is  the 


74  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

more  ground  there  is  for  believing  that  he  can  be  reasoned 
with.  It  is  the  uneducated  who  are  hard  to  bring  into  a  status 
of  desirable  relationship. 

If  the  men  in  your  employ  do  not  understand  you — will  not 
understand  you — put  it  down  to  lack  of  high  ideals.  The  ab- 
sence of  high  ideals  is  the  result  of  ignorance,  and  ignorance 
is  nothing  more  than  the  lack  of  education,  and  the  very  best 
method — in  fact  the  only  method — of  getting  higher  educa- 
tional ideals  is  through  the  medium  of  publicity. 

An  example  of  this  lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the 
workmen  was  brought  to  my  notice  the  other  day  while  in  con- 
versation with  one  of  our  best  paid  and  highly  skilled  me- 
chanics. We  had  been  discussing  the  business  outlook,  and 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  price  we  received  for  a  certain 
product.  He  remarked  that  the  company  must  make  an  enor- 
mous profit  on  this  article,  stating  the  amount.  We  asked  him 
how  he  figured  the  company  made  such  a  profit.  Well,  he 
said,  the  stock  in  that  machine,  I  have  figured,  only  cost  blank 
dollars ;  I  have  counted  the  hours  it  takes  to  mould,  machine 
and  assemble  the  parts,  and  I  find  they  make  blank  profit. 
This  amount  he  claimed  was  too  much.  Of  course  it  had  not 
occurred  to  him  that  the  factors  of  material  and  labor  cost 
were  only  two  of  the  elements  entering  into  the  ultimate  cost. 
The  factors  of  immense  overhead  burden,  such  as  sales  ex- 
pense, supervision,  up-keep,  insurance,  interest  on  investment, 
advertising,  etc.,  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of,  and  yet  he  could  be 
and  in  fact  is  classed  as  one  of  our  intelligent  workmen. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  such  men  as  these  fall  easy  victims 
to  the  sordid  and  misleading  arguments  of  the  selfish  and  un- 
principled labor  agitator? 

The  trouble  is,  gentlemen,  we  are  to  blame.  We  have  sat 
back  and  allowed  ourselves  to  be  advertised  by  those  who  do 
not  know — allowed  ourselves  to  be  shown  wrong  side  up  as  it 
were. 

Do  our  men  know  that  if  we  have  made  money  this  year 
that  the  chances  are  it  will  go  into  new  machinery  and  equip- 
ments next  year?  Do  they  know  that  through  some  change 
in  the  manufacture  and  design  that  this  new  machinery  you 
purchased  this  year  will  be  good  for  nothing  but  the  scrap  heap 
next  year?     Do  they  know  that  during  certain  periods  of  de- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        75 

pressed  business  you  are  compelled  to  take  work  at  a  price  far 
below  what  you  should  simply  to  give  them  work  and  hold 
your  organization  together?  Do  your  men  know  that  while 
you  are  eager  to  pay  higher  wages,  to  provide  better  equipment 
and  to  have  more  ideal  working  conditions,  you  are  restrained 
because  of  the  fact  of  competition?  You  may  be  willing  to 
pay  five  dollars  per  day  to  your  mechanics,  but  you  find  your- 
self bidding  against  others  who  pay  $3.00  per  day.  Do  your 
employees  know  this? 

Different  concerns  have  adopted  different  methods  of  edu- 
cation. Some  have  been  successful,  manj-  have  failed.  As  you 
are  well  aware,  some  employers  have  entered  upon  elaborate 
schemes  for  the  betterment  of  working  conditions  and  the  wel- 
fare of  their  men,  only  to  find  that  their  efforts  were  not  ap- 
preciated but  even  ignored  and  misinterpreted.  Where  these 
results  have  obtained,  I  believe  you  will  find,  upon  investiga- 
tion, that  there  was  something  lacking  in  the  fundamental  plan. 

When  George  M.  Pullman  built  the  model  town  which  even 
today  bears  his  name,  the  paternalistic  enterprise  that  he  es- 
tablished was  regarded  by  many  as  a  possible  solution  of  the 
so-called  labor  problem.  But  Pullman,  Illinois,  is  known 
throughout  the  world  today  not  as  a  model  industrial  city  free 
from  the  spirit  of  strife,  but  as  the  seat  of  one  of  the  bloodiest 
battles  in  the  history  of  labor  in  this  country. 

The  social  welfare  plans  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Pullman  have 
since  been  adopted  by  other  employers,  with  many  modifica- 
tions, and  sometimes  upon  an  almost  equally  elaborate  scale, 
but  never  yet  have  these  plans  fulfilled  the  hope  of  their  pro- 
moters. In  many  instances  they  have  been  keenly  disappoint- 
ed, because  it  was  believed  that  the  workers  did  not  appreciate 
the  features  which  had  been   furnished   at  such  great  expense. 

We  have  tried  to  profit  by  the  unfortunate  experience  of 
these  concerns  whose  policies  have  been  retroactive. 

We  have  avoided  as  far  as  we  could  all  evidence  or  sug- 
gestions that  we  might  have  paternalistic  motives.  Our  work 
has  been  from  the  men  to  the  company  and  not  from  the  com- 
pany to  the  men.  And  this  is  an  important  factor.  The  aver- 
age man  is  at  once  more  or  less  suspicious  of  any  attempt  to 
hand  him  something  for  which  he  was  not  looking.  He  as- 
sumes the  attitude  of  one  who  has  to  be  shown — shown  that 


76  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

you   are   dead  in   earnest — and   this   requires   time   and   patient 
eflfort  on  the  part  of  the  employer. 

Perhaps  many  of  us  are  famiUar  with  the  early  experiences 
of  those  employers  who  introduced  new  methods  of  payment 
in  their  factories,  such  as  the  premium  and  gain  sharing  plans. 
We  know  how  they  were  misunderstood.  Some  of  us  made 
the  mistake  of  pushing  the  plans  too  hard— forcing  it  upon  the 
men  before  they  understood  its  real  purpose.  Others  of  us 
were  wiser  and  adopted  the  plan  of  getting  hold  of  those  men 
in  our  employ  who  were  most  intelligent  and  so  instructing 
them  that  their  influence  and  proper  understanding  made  it 
easy  to  reach  the  more  cautious  and  prejudiced. 

And,  this,  in  our  mind,  is  one  of  the  most  important  fac- 
tors to  keep  before  us  in  handling  men.  If  anything  new  is  to 
be  introduced,  get  hold  of  the  leaders—  those  fellows  whose  in- 
telligence is  most  developed.  Having  gained  their  favor,  the 
less  thoughtful  will  fall  in  line. 

In  our  own  organization  we  have  paid  particular  attention 
to  the  selection  of  foremen,  for  as  the  foreman  is,  so  will  be 
his  men.  You  cannot  have  an  unintelligent  head  of  a  de- 
partment and  expect  the  men  in  that  department  to  be  up  to 
the  standard.  Like  begets  like.  We  create  as  we  think.  If 
we  think  disorderly  thoughts  we  have  disorderly  people  and 
things  around  us.  If  you  have  a  mean  foreman,  the  chances 
are  that  he  has  a  good  percentage  of  mean  men  under  him. 
Big,  broadminded  workmen  will  not  be  content  to  work  for  a 
department  head  whom  they  cannot  respect.  And  of  course 
this  same  argument  applies  to  the  real  boss  himself,  his  gen- 
eral manager  and  his  superintendent.  Men  unconsciously  gath- 
er about  them   men  of   their  own  view  point  and   disposition. 

The  policy  of  most  concerns  in  the  past  has  been  that  of 
hiring  and  firing.     It   ni  ver  occurred   to   them   to   educate. 

There  is  a  certain  organization  in  this  country,  employing 
thousands  of  men,  and  its  policy  is  never  to  discharge  an  em- 
ployee except  as  a  last  resort.  If  the  employee  does  not  mea- 
sure up  to  the  requirements  of  the  position  he  is  holding,  he  is 
reduced  to  a  less  responsible  one.  If  he  still  fails  to  meet  the 
standard,  he  is  again  reduced;  the  argument  being  that  it  has 
already  cost  the  firm  money  to  carry  this  man  as  long  as  they 
have,  and  if  there  is  any  job  in  the  organization  that  he  can 
fill,  he  should  be  given  it.     All  of  this  of  course  on  the  basis  of 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  ^^ 

good  business.  If  they  discharge  him  and  hire  another,  what 
guarantee  liave  they  that  the  same  experience  will  not  be  re- 
peated ? 

The  figures  on  employment  quoted  you  in  the  early  part  of 
this  discussion  show  us  that  a  policy  of  this  kind  is  tremen- 
dously unprofitable.  If  a  department  head  or  foreman  can- 
not get  along  with  his  help,  put  it  down  there  is  something 
wrong  with  him.  A  foreman  should  not  be  selected  for  his 
knowledge  of  the  work  alone.  In  fact  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  details  of  any  work  may  not  be  a  necessity  to  a  success- 
ful handling  of  that  work.  It  is  the  man  who  can  grasp  the 
broad  aspects  of  the  subject  and  so  co-ordinate  his  work  and 
organize  his  department  who  gets  the  results  that  really  count. 

A  very  concrete  example  of  this  was  recently  brought  to  my 
notice  in  one  of  our  departments.  We  had  a  man  in  charge  of 
a  department  where  about  fifty  or  sixty  men  were  employed. 
He  understood  the  details  of  the  work  better  than  any  other 
man  in  the  organization,  but  he  couldn't  handle  men.  We 
placed  another  man  in  charge — a  man  much  j^ounger  and  with 
practically  no  knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  work — but  a  man 
who  possessed  tact,  organization  ability,  and  the  willingness  to 
co-operate  with  the  men  who  did  know  the  details,  and  the 
results  he  has  obtained  have  been  remarkable. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  factors  overlooked  in  the  hand- 
ling of  men  is  that  of  confidence  in  their  ability  to  do.  While 
there  is  danger  in  over-rating  men,  there  is  also  danger  in 
under-rating  their  ability.  Men  develop  in  proportion  to  the 
degree  of  responsibilities  placed  upon  them. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  question  of  selecting  employees. 
Some  establishments  claim  that  this  is  the  function  of  the  em- 
ployment oflice  exclusively.  With  this  opinion  we  cannot  con- 
cur. While  too  great  care  cannot  be  exercised  in  selecting 
men,  no  person,  matters  not  his  experience,  can  tell  the  quali- 
fications of  a  prospective  applicant  by  external  appearance.  We 
know  there  are  people  who  claim  to  be  able  to  do  this — those 
who  assert  they  can  tell  by  the  slant  of  an  eye,  the  size  of  the 
ears,  the  depth  of  the  forehead,  or  the  shape  of  the  nose, 
whether  a  man  is  suited  to  a  particular  job  or  not;  but  our  ten 
years  experience  in  hiring  men  will  not  permit  us  to  believe 
that  it  can  be  done. 

No     system  of  studies  in  physiological  psychology  can  re- 


78  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

veal  the  real  qualities  atid  abilities  of  men ;  for  as  the  proof 
of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating,  so  is  the  test  of  a  man's  ability 
to  do,  in  the  doing.  And  the  man  in  the  employment  office 
is  not  in  the  best  position  to  find  this  out.  It  is  a  question  for 
the  foreman  under  whom  the  man  has  been  assigned  to  work. 
If  the  foreman  is  not  capable  of  discerning  this,  he  is  just 
that  much  inefficient.  It  is  one  of  the  principal  functions  of  a 
foreman  to  develop  his  men — and  the  ability  of  the  department 
head  who  lacks  this  quality  may  be  seriously  questioned. 

In  the  hiring  of  men  there  should  be  a  well  defined  policy 
adopted.  This  policy  should  be  known  to  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments and  thoroughly  understood  by  the  management  and  the 
employment  officials.  This  policy  should  require  certain  stand- 
ards to  be  maintained  in  the  employment  office,  and  that  no 
men  be  sent  to  a  department  that  do  not  fill  these  requirements. 
This  being  duly  recognized,  the  rest  should  lie  with  the  fore- 
man. Inasmuch  as  the  foreman  is  expected  to  get  results  from 
the  men  who  work  under  his  supervision,  he  should  be  given 
at  least  reasonable  choice  in  the  selection  of  his  men. 

Every  employer  is  anxious  to  have  men  about  him  who 
can  grow — men  who  are  not  content  with  staying  at  the  same 
job  longer  than  he  can,  with  profit  to  the  employer,  be  ad- 
vanced to  something  higher.  This  can  only  be  secured 
through  education  of  the  man.  There  should  be  a  constant 
movement  toward  the  top  where  ability  is  proportionately  in 
greater  demand.  There  is  much  in  increasing  mental  effi- 
ciency as  well  as  increasing  the  ability  to  turn  out  much  of  a 
certain   product  in   a  certain   time. 

The  trouble  has  been  we  have  not  been  teaching  our  men 
to  think,  and  therefore  we  have  no  way  of  knowing  to  what 
extent  a  man  is  capable  of  thinking.  We  only  know  that  he  is 
performing  work  which  requires  a  minimum  of  mentality,  but 
we  don't  know  what  his  real  value  might  be  if  given  the 
proper  instruction. 

Those  of  us  who  have  sought  to  develop  the  latent  powers 
of  workmen  know  that  rcstilts  of  a  remarkable  standard  have 
been  secured.  One  of  the  greatest  hindrances,  as  we  have  al- 
ready noted,  has  been  in  the  working  from  the  employer  to  the 
employee    instead   of    from   the    employee   to   the   employer. 

But  are  we  to  conclude  that  because  many  attempts  at  bet- 
tering conditions   have   failed  that  the   employer  and   employee 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        79 

cannot  get  together  on  a  basis  of  mutualitj-?  We  believe  they 
can  get  together,  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  method,  and  we 
can,  if  we  try,  find  means  through  which  we  can  prove  to  each 
other  that  we  are  in  dead  earnest. 

Now,  in  addition  to  raising  the  ideal  of  men  through  the 
means  of  publicity,  there  is  still  another  very  important  meth- 
od or  plan  through  which  we  may  be  convinced  of  each 
other's  sincerity.  I  refer  to  the  plan  of  encouraging  em- 
ployees to  help  work  out  their  own  problems,  or  in  other 
words,  to  have  them  largelj'  instrumental  in  developing  the 
conditions  under  which  they  work.  And  if  you  will  permit 
me  to  refer  to  some  of  the  things  we  have  developed  in  our 
own  plant,  I  can  better  illustrate  the  point  I  wish  to  make. 

We  have  gone  on  the  theory  that  no  permanent  system  of 
welfare  work  can  be  established  that  does  not  partake  of  the 
principle  of  mutuality.  In  other  words  the  men  whom  the 
work  is  intended  to  benefit  must  have  a  part  in  its  creation.  If 
conditions  are  such  as  will  permit  of  its  being  largely  the  work 
of  their  own  doing,  so  much  the  better. 

But  there  must  be  a  beginning  and  this  should  be  done 
by  the  employer  selecting  someone  to  work  with  the  men — 
someone  who  by  nature  and  training  is  fitted  to  lead  men  and 
help  them  help  themselves.  This  has  been  our  plan  of  opera- 
tion. W^hether  it  has  been  worth  while  must  be  determined 
by  results,  and  these  are  what  you  are  possibly  interested  in. 
Not  that  we  have  done  so  very  much ;  but  we  do  believe  we 
have  a  splendid  start  in  a  number  of  lines  of  welfare  work  that 
make  for  the  benefit  of  our  men  and  ourselves.  And  that 
these  have  been  tremendous  factors  in  holding  our  men  and 
reducing  the  num.ber  hired  there  is  no  doubt. 

An  example  of  how  men  will  shoulder  responsibility  when 
it  has  been  put  up  to  them,  is  well  illustrated  in  the  manage- 
ment of  our  Mutual  Aid  Association.  This  Association  was 
organized  over  twenty  years  ago;  but  for  the  first  fifteen 
years  it  was  not  a  success.  It  was  largely  officered  by  Com- 
pany officials  and  the  men  did  not  seem  to  be  interested.  Most 
every  year  there  was  more  or  less  of  a  deficit  and  the  Company 
was  called  upon  every  little  while  to  help  meet  this  to  the 
amount  of  a  thousand  dollars  or  more  per  j^ear.  Even  the 
promise  to  pay  half  the  dues  did  not  seem  to  be  much  incen- 
tive for  the  men  to  join. 


8o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

A  plan  of  reorganization  was  suggested  in  which  was  in- 
cluded the  provision  that  the  whole  responsibility  for  the  suc- 
cess or  failure  was  up  to  the  men  themselves.  They  could 
make  it  a  go  or  allow  it  to  fail.  The  Company  has  done  all 
they  thought  wise  to  do.  A  meeting  was  called  of  all  the  men 
and  the  proposition  presented.  Committees  were  appointed  to 
revise  the  constitution  and  by-laws  to  meet  the  new  condi- 
tions, and  the  new  management  was  elected.  The  men  at  once 
realized  the  responsibility.  They  went  to  it,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  first  year  they  had  increased  the  membership  over  three 
hundred  per  cent,  had  over  two  thousand  dollars  in  the  treas- 
ury, and  had  two  less  assessments  than  they  ever  had  in  any 
one  year  previous.  This  was  six  years  ago  and  the  record  has 
been  maintained  each  year  since. 

.  The  next  feature  of  our  work  started  and  worked  out  suc- 
cessfully by  our  employees  was  our  restaurant.  Many  of  our 
men  about  five  years  ago  believed  that  we  ought  to  have  a 
restaurant.  A  meeting  was  held  and  committees  appointed. 
The  result  was  a  small  inexpensive  lunch  counter  in  one  of 
our  shops.  It  was  well  patronized  and  in  a  few  months  was 
moved  to  larger  quarters.  We  have  now  moved  three  differ- 
ent times  to  larger  quarters  and  have  a  thoroughly  equipped 
restaurant  where  we  serve  on  an  average  of  six  hundred  daily, 
and  we  are  planning  to  double  this  capacity  in  the  very  near 
future. 

While  we  sell  everything  at  three  cents  with  the  exception 
of  meat,  which  is  four  cents,  we  have  been  able  to  save  suffi- 
cient to  pay  for  our  equipment,  valued  at  $8,000.00,  the  money 
for  which  was  advanced,  without  interest  by  the  Company.  The 
food  is  the  very  highest  in  quality  and  wholesomeness,  and  for 
fifteen  to  twenty  cents  a  splendid  lunch,  yes  even  a  good-sized 
m.eal,  can  be  secured.  So  popular  has  this  restaurant  become, 
we  could  have  tripled  the  number  of  employees  using  it  if  they 
could  be  accommodated. 

But  we  believe  in  a  conservative  and  substantial  growth- 
one  that  pays  its  way  and  only  increases  as  its  financial  status 
will  permit. 

Believing  there  were  possibilities  in  co-operative  buying,  we 
started  to  sell  such  articles  as  sugar,  coffee,  flour,  tobacco, 
etc.,  in  a  small  way  in  our  restaurant.  This  was  about  three 
years  ago.     During  this  period  the  plan  has  grown  into  a  good- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       8i 

sized  co-operative  store  in  which  we  are  doing  ten  to  twelve 
thousand  dollars  of  business  each  month.  We  handle  all  kinds 
of  groceries,  meats,  boots,  shoes,  rough  clothing,  etc.  We  have 
handled  this  year  through  the  store  about  thirty-five  car  loads 
of  coal,  twenty  car  loads  of  potatoes  and  five  car  loads  of 
apples,  all  at  a  large  saving  in  money  to  employees.  We  have 
our  own  coal  wagons,  auto  delivery  trucks  and  wagons.  Two 
years  ago  we  started  our  own  bakery  in  a  small  way,  but  now 
have  an  oven  capacity  of  three  thousand  loaves  of  bread  per 
day  with  a  thorough  pastry  and  bread  mixing  equipment. 
Everything  used  in  our  restaurant  is  baked  in  our  bakery.  We 
have  a  lard  rendering  plant  in  which  we  make  all  our  own  lard 
which  is  absolutely  pure  and  free  from  so  many  of  the  unde- 
sirable elements  entering  into  the  average  slaughter  house  lard. 
This  lard  is  sold  at  from  five  to  six  cents  per  pound  less  than 
it   can   be   secured   at   other   stores. 

We  have  our  own  ice  cream  factory  and  during  the  sum- 
mer months  sell  a  large  size  dish  of  ice  cream — made  of  cream 
from  our  own  dairy  farm — for  three  cents  per  dish.  The  bread 
baked  in  our  bakery  is  sold  for  four  cents  for  a  loaf  two 
ounces  larger  than  the  usual  size.  This  bread  is  made  of  ab- 
solutely pure  materials  and  contains  no  dope  of  any  kind.  And 
I  almost  forgot  to  add  that  we  have  established  our  own  dairy 
farm,  from  which  we  have  fresh  morning  milk  for  lunch  each 
day. 

Another  feature  of  our  stores  that  saves  money  is  our  shoe 
department.    $3.50  and  $4.50  shoes  are  sold  for  $2.50  and  3.00. 

Employees  will  save  each  month  all  the  way  from  3.00  to 
$12.00  per  month  per  family  on  the  goods  purchased,  depend- 
ing on  the  size  of  the  family. 

Acting  on  the  theory  that  a  community  is  the  most  pros- 
perous whose  working  people  have  the  most  and  best  home  life, 
and  that  the  most  and  best  home  life  conduces  to  the  highest 
wages,  the  best  education  and  training  and  the  greatest  pros- 
perity of  a  community,  three  years  ago  our  employees  orga- 
nized a  building  and  loan  association.  During  this  period  a  to- 
tal business  of  over  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  has  been 
done ;  we  have  assets  of  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and 
seventy-three  employees  have  bought  and  built  homes  with  the 
money.  We  have  paid  a  dividend  of  five  per  cent  each  year, 
have  loaned  the  money  for  five  and  one-half  per  cent,  and  have 


82  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

over    seven    hundred    stocks    and    savings    accounts    with    em- 
ployees. 

All  this  work  is  fostered  and  encouraged  by  the  Company, 
but  the  management  and  organization  is  carried  on  entirely 
by  committees  of  shop  men.  The  Company  have  advanced  us 
the  money  to  get  started,  but  we  have  paid  almost  all  of  it 
back. 

I  do  not  refer  to  these  things  for  the  purpose  of  drawing 
attention  to  anything  particularly  we  have  done  ourselves,  but 
rather  to  illustrate  the  profitableness  of  encouraging  and  helping 
men  help  themselves.  In  other  words  to  have  our  men  believe  in 
themselves  and  in  their  ability  to  do  things  other  than  the  mere 
routine  of  the  daily  work  for  which  they  are  paid  in  money. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  handling  men  the  chief  clement 
has  been  overlooked — the  element  of  human  nature.  Men  re- 
fuse, and  they  have  a  right,  to  be  regarded  either  as  objects 
of  charity  or  as  parts  of  a  great  producing  machine.  Impor- 
tant as  are  dififerent  systems  of  present  day  production, 
and  with  all  consideration  for  their  industrial  value  and  ne- 
cessity, all  must  be  built  upon  well  defined  principles — or  in 
other  words — the  science  of  human  relationships ;  and  any 
system  that  disregards  this,  must  fail. 

The  great  trouble  with  employer  and  employee  in  the  past 
has  been  that  both  have  been  guilty  of  doing  most  everything 
to  keep  from  getting  together.  We  spend  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  fighting  each  other,  but  we  seem  to 
have  little  to  spend  to  find  out  why  we  cannot  understand 
each   other  better. 

We  may  appoint  commissions  without  number  to  study 
why  these  conditions  exist,  and  their  investigations  may  be 
good ;  but  the  real  solution  will  be  brought  about  by  the  indi- 
vidual employer  and  employee  themselves. 

It  will  be  brought  about  only  when  there  is  an  honest  de- 
sire to  be  absolutely  fair.  When  both  have  realized  that 
their  individual  success  is  as  much  the  result  of  right  mental 
attitude  as  it  is  of  any  system  of  economic  production,  a  start 
will   have  been   made  toward  the  goal   of  mutuality. 

And  the  means  of  securing  this  proper  mental  attitude  are 
simple,  direct,  inexpensive  and  right  within  every  organiza- 
tion where  men  work  together.     The  best  workmen  go  to  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        83 

places  where  best  working  conditions  prevail,  and  therefore,  it- 
is  important  that  these  places  where  men  work  are  clean  and 
wholesome.  The  average  workman  is  mightilj^  appreciative  of 
consideration  in  his  behalf.  He  may  not  show  it  at  the  time, 
but  it  is  in  his  heart  just  tlie  same. 

Humanity  docs  not  differ  to  any  great  extent  on  the  aver- 
age. Men  do  not  want  to  be  paternalized ;  but  they  are  re- 
sponsible to  kindly  consideration.  They  may  not  manifest 
much  enthusiasm  at  the  mention  of  the  company  for  whom 
they  work;  but  if  the  leading  personality  of  that  company  has 
shown  itself  to  be  human — to  be  interested  in  the  troubles, 
joys  and  incidents  that  go  to  make  up  the  life  of  the  men  who 
constitute  the  basis  of  its  existence,  there  is  a  response  that 
is  really  manifest. 

An  encouraging  word  from  the  real  boss  may  mean  more 
— in  fact  does  mean  more  to  some  men — than  a  raise  in  wages. 
Highest  pay  and  perfect  physical  conditions  are  not  necessarily 
a  guarantee  against  discontent. 

An\-thing  that  is  for  the  welfare  of  the  employee  must  be 
conceived  and  understood  as  such.  Its  purpose  must  not  be 
disguised,  for  men  do  not  care  to  be  advertised  under  the  head 
of  improved  conditions.  The  home  life  of  the  employee  should 
not  be  interfered  with  in  any  scheme  of  general  betterment 
unless  it  is  done  with  the  greatest  care  and  only  after  it  has 
been  shown  that  such  action  is  the  only  remedy  and  there  has 
been  a  desire  expressed  bj'  the  employees  to  have  it  done. 

There  is  no  reason  why  any  business  concern  cannot  put 
the  question  of  handling  men  and  their  welfare  on  a  business 
basis  and  frankly  state  the  business  reason  for  such  under- 
taking. 

This  is  a  point  we  have  emphasized  in  all  our  welfare  plans. 
In  fact,  our  employees  distinctly  understand  that  auAihing  the 
company  fosters  for  their  benefit,  is  based  upon  the  belief  that 
it  will  bring  returns  in  dollars  to  both. 

Our  emploj-ees  have  learned  that  capital  and  labor  are  in- 
dependent— that  both  must  prosper  on  the  same  basis.  They 
are  learning  that  demagogues  and  agitators  do  not  fill  pay  en- 
velopes, and  never  will.  They  are  learning  that  co-operation 
and  not  disintegration  is  the  evident  need.  Men  with  red  blood 
in  their  veins  only  want  an  opportunity  to  help  themselves,  and 


84  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

any   system   that   overlooks   this    fact,    must   pay   the   price   of 
over-sight. 

There  are  many  details  that  enter  into  the  handling  of  men 
successfully,  a  number  of  which  we  would  like  to  mention,  but 
our  time  will  not  permit.  It  is  the  general  underlying  prin- 
ciples which  we  must  get  hold  of  and  the  details  will  adjust 
themselves.  If  some  of  the  things  I  have  said  will  make  us 
think  a  little  more,  even  though  we  may  not  agree  with  the 
plans  suggested,  our  getting  together  will  not  have  been  wholly 
a  loss. 


LABOR  TURNOVER' 

In  discussing  the  question  of  labor  turnover  I  find  there 
are  two  methods  that  are  almost  invariably  adopted — one  is  the 
purely  practical,  the  other  the  terribly  theoretical.  I  am  go- 
ing to  adopt  the  first  because  I  believe  it  is  the  one  method  of 
treatment  at  the  present  time.  There  really  should  be  nothing 
to  prevent  a  discussion  of  the  problem  from  a  combination  of 
these  two  viewpoints,  but  apparently  there  is. 

Labor  turnover  today  is  in  exactly  the  same  position  where 
the  discussion  of  efificiency  was  15  years  ago.  We  all  realize 
the  tremendous  harm  that  has  been  done  real  efficiency  be- 
cause of  its  being  absolutely  misunderstood  by  the  average 
man.  That  misunderstanding  may  have  been  produced  in  the 
beginning  by  those  who  being  interested  in  discussing  efficiency 
did  not  emphasize  the  fact  that  it  is  simply  codified  common 
sense.  I  trust  that  turnover  will  never  have  the  many  trim- 
mings tacked  to  it  which  has  resulted  in  so  many  cases  of  ap- 
plied  efficiency   being   simply   form   instead  of    substance. 

The  attitude  of  the  average  executive  toward  turnover  re- 
minds me  of  the  attitude  of  the  average  Mexican  toward 
smallpox.  The  Mexican  believes  that  unless  you  have  had 
smallpox  you  are  considered  to  have  missed  one  of  the  ex- 
periences of  life,  and  it  is  presumed  there  is  something  radi- 
cally wrong  with  you.  I  hope  in  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years 
that  executives  as  a  class  will  appreciate  that  a  turnover  of 
from  50  to  200  per  cent,  is  not  any  more  necessary  than  having 
smallpox. 

*  From  article  by  Philip  Brasher,  Employment  Manager  of  the  Braden 
Copper  Co.     American  Machinist.    48:693-6.     April  25,   1918. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT  85 


Defining    Labor    Turnover 

The  definition  of  labor  turnover  as  adopted  by  one  asso- 
ciation is :  "Turnover  is  the  change  in  personnel  brought 
about  by  hiring  and  termination  of  employment.  Many  con- 
ditions enter  into  these  changes,  some  of  which  are  beyond 
the  employer's  control  or  influence.  Other  conditions  are 
largely  within  the  control  of  the  employer,  and  because  of  their 
obvious  importance  they  demand  serious  consideration.  Prob- 
lems relating  to  personnel  are  no  less  vital  than  problems  re- 
lating to  markets,  materials  and  machinerj-.  Conditions  affect- 
ing turnover  lie  at  the  heart  of  all  personnel  problems.  In- 
telligent consideration  cannot  be  given  these  conditions  with- 
out knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  such  knowledge  depends  upon 
accurate  data.  It  is  impractical  merely  to  group  or  express 
in  total  percentage  all  the  factors  entering  into  turnover ; 
these  factors  are  irreconcilable.  It  is  of  value  to  know  the 
percentage  of  exits,  but  it  is  of  more  value  to  know  the  causes 
of  those  exits ;  therefore  a  detailed  analysis  of  reason  un- 
derlining   termination    of    employment    becomes    valuable." 

This  definition  should  make  it  clear  that  those  who  are 
discussing  this  subject  have  at  least  arrived  at  a  common 
ground  and  know  the  problem  which  they  have  to   face. 

A  large  number  of  attempts  have  been  made  to  estimate  the 
cost  of  turnover.  Mr.  Loree  of  the  Delaware  &  Hudson  R.R. 
figured  that  every  time  a  railroad  changes  one  of  its  chief 
executives  it  costs  them  $1,000,000.  On  the  other  hand  Magnus 
Alexander  has  estimated  that  it  costs  about  $8.50  to  replace 
an  unskilled  laborer  and  about  $73  to  replace  a  skilled  worker. 
I  notice  recent  estimates  that  shipyards  figure  that  it  costs 
them  today  about  $40  to  replace  an  ordinary  workman. 

In  igo6  and  1907  I  was  chief  engineer  of  a  company  doing 
work  that  required  a  great  deal  of  Italian  labor — simply  plain 
shovel  men.  Roughly  we  were  employing  about  1000  of  them, 
and  a  conservative  estimate  of  the  labor  turnover  in  that  case 
would  have  been  about  1200  per  cent.  However,  it  did  not 
particularly  bother  me  at  that  time.  Nevertheless,  in  that  par- 
ticular case  !Mr  Magnus'  estimate  of  $8.50  would  have  been 
very  high. 

Times  change.  At  present  practically  every  man  I  hire 
represents  an  average  investment  of  about  $2500  in  cash  with- 


86  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

out  estimating  other  losses;  labor  turnover  is  very  real  to  me 
now.  Therefore  the  cost  of  turnover  is  one  of  those  intangible 
things  impossible  to  prove  definitely  one  way  or  the  other. 
All  we  can  do  is  to  use  our  common  sense  and  imagination — ■ 
attempt  to  visualize  the  consequences  involved  in  the  change 
of  a  big  man  in  an  organization.  The  change  of  a  small  man 
can  be  figured  in  dollars  and  cents,  but  changing  a  big  man 
costs  money,  time  and  loss  of  product. 

I  may  be  wrong,  but  I  firmly  believe  that  a  large  percentage 
of  concerns  that  employ  more  than  loo  men  would  average 
about  200  per  cent,  a  year  turnover  if  they  kept  records.  There 
is  a  munition  plant  somewhere  in  this  country  not  over  3000 
miles  from  New  York  emploj'ing  about  3700  men,  whose  turn- 
over has  been  running  about  6700,  or  almost  200  per  cent,  a 
month.  This  has  practically  been  cut  in  half  recently  by  in- 
troducing a  large  numbei;;  of  girls  on  cutting  machines,  pro- 
viding them  with  Victrolas  for  dancing,  a  jazz  band  three 
times  a  week,  a  restaurant  supplying  good  food,  and  many  other 
features.  Instead  of  a  foreman  indiscriminately  firing  a 
worker,  as  was  done  formerly,  no  man  can  now  be  discharged 
before  being  sent  to  the  employment  bureau  and  given  a  choice 
of  work  in  some  other  department  unless  he  has  been  convicted 
of  a  very  serious  offense,  in  which  case  the  employment  bu- 
reau then  discharges  him  outright. 

How   To   Reduce   Labor   Turnover 

I  believe  that  labor  turnover  can  be  reduced  to  the  irre- 
ducible minimum — say  anywhere  between  3  per  cent,  and  25 
per  cent,  a  year  by 

1.  Hiring  the  best  employment  manager  that  can  be  had. 

2.  Doing  exactly  what  he  want.s  when  he  wants  it  If  he  is  not  the 
biggest  and  best  man  you  can  get  do  not  hire  him.  If  he  has  not  your 
entire  confidence  after  six  months  fire  him;  for  rightly  or  wrongly  he  will 
never  be   able  to   accomplish  what  he   ought   to   for  you   without  it.    . 

If  he  is  on  to  his  job  his  first  effort  will  be  to  keep  the  good 
men  he  already  has  by  considering 

a.  Wages,  bonuses,  pensions,  delayed  premiums  and  all  other  methods 
of  compensation. 

b.  Eliminating   indiscriminate    firing   by    the   foreman. 

c.  Hours  of  labor. 

d.  Working  conditions,   safety,  health  and  comfort. 

e.  Proper  food  at  the  proper  time  (poor  food  in  my  opinion  is  at 
the  bottom   of  more  labor  trouble  than   almost  any  other  one  cause). 

f.  Living    conditions,    housing,    transportation,    amusements,    etc. 

g.  Education,  both  in  and  out  of  the  plant. 

h.     Other  things   involved  too  numerous  to  specify. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        87 

He  will  consider  these  not  necessarily  to  change  any  one 
of  them,  but  to  sec  that  everything  is  being  done  that  can  be 
done  in  fairness  to  the  company  and  to  his  employees.  All 
that  either  of  them  wants  in  most  cases  is  a  "square  deal,"  but 
they  both  do  not  always  know   it. 

He  will  try  to  get  more  good  men  by 

a.  Proper   selective   methods. 

b.  Judicious  advertising  (I  mean  real  press-agent  stuff,  not  merely 
"men-wanted"  column  ads.)  favorable  notice  in  trade  papers  of  the  condi- 
tions cited,  and  running  an  organization  sheet  weekly  or  monthly  (if  it 
is  well  done)  are  very  effective,  but  the  most  effective  of  all  is  the  man- 
to-man  talks  by  satisfied  employees  with  their  friends  outside.  The  secret 
is  in  making  good  men  want  to  get  into  your  organization  not  onto  your 
pay    roll. 

c.  Getting  the  proper  records,  references  and  available  history  of  all 
applicants. 

The  Human  Relation 

As  I  said  before,  the  human  relation  is  a  potential  cause  of 
labor  turnover,  and  the  best  thing  to  overcome  deficiencies  in 
this  respect  is  to  analj-ze  the  causes  by  departments  and  so  find 
out  where  the  worst  conditions  exist.  One  of  the  most  ex- 
pensive and  far-reaching  causes  is  the  ineffective  and  im- 
proper method  of  selection  and  employment.  In  the  last  few 
years,  which  have  been  strenuous  ones  from  the  labor-turnover 
standpoint,  the  organizations  which  have  come  through  in  the 
best  shape  have  been  those  that  have  had  one  man  in  charge 
of  employment  work.  This  man  should  be  the  biggest,  best 
educated,  most  broadminded  and  most  courteous  one  you  can 
afford  to  employ.  If  you  cannot  afford  such  a  man  for  your 
own  business  a  cooperative  agreement  with  neighboring  firms 
can  be  made  to  work  very  satisfactorily.  The  right  man  in 
the  right  place  here  will  count  for  more  than  any  other  one 
position  in  your  organization.  If  he  knows  his  work  he  will 
consent  to  be  responsible  only  to  one  of  the  highest  officers  in 
your  company  and  he  will  insist  upon  the  right  to  consider  the 
conditions  I  have  outlined  above  and  get  action  upon  his  de- 
cisions within  a  reasonable  time. 

In  selecting  men  honesty,  industry,  intelligence  and  health 
are  fundamental,  yet  consideration  of  them  is  often  neglected. 
Health  is,  of  course,  something  that  a  man  should  have  when 
he  starts  the  job,  and  care  should  be  taken  to  see  that  it  is 
conserved.  Intelligence,  like  dynamite,  should  be  carefully 
handled.     Never  use   a  razor  where  a  knife  will   do.     I   know 


88  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

of  a  man  who  for  37  years  has  pasted  Httle  pieces  of  paper  on 
little  pieces  of  felt.  I  maintain  you  could  not  find  a  better 
man  for  that  particular  job,  for  he  has  just  the  right  combin- 
ation of  health,  industry  and  intelligence.  More  attention 
should  be  paid  to  dishonesty  than  is  done  at  present.  Like  so 
many  other  causes  of  labor  turnover,  it  seems  to  be  consid- 
ered a  necessary  evil.  I  stopped  a  man  coming  out  of  a  ship- 
yard once  because  of  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  he  walked, 
and  I  found  80-odd  pounds  of  copper  sheeting  wound  about 
him  under  his  clothes.  Another  employe  used  to  bring  his 
umbrella  rain  or  shine.  One  day  it  rained  and  he  thoughtless- 
ly opened  it  as  he  went  out  of  the  gate,  and  a  rifle  barrel  came 
clanging  down  in  the  street— he  did  not  come  back.  Rifles 
are  carried  out  a  few  parts  at  a  time  and  assembled  and  sold 
outside.  A  dishonorable  employe  will  spread  distrust  through- 
out a  whole  organization. 

The  next  question  is  that  of  wages.  I  believe  it  is  eco- 
nomical to  hire  and  hold  the  highest  priced  man  you  can  af- 
ford. I  know  of  a  town  lying  between  two  other  industrial 
towns  and  I  know  that  mechanics  frequently  after  leaving  A 
will  not  even  get  off  the  train  at  B,  but  will  pay  the  carfare  in 
the  longer  journey  to  C.  Reason  is  B  has  the  reputation  for 
paying  low  wages,  so  the  best  mechanics  avoid  it  and  go  where 
they  can  get  what  they  consider  their  due.  Li  other  words, 
water  runs  downhill  and  the  best  men  will  naturally  gravitate 
toward  the  organization,  town  or  city  having  the  most  satis- 
factory general   conditions. 

Mental    Conditions    Must    Be    Considered 

When  you  speak  of  conditions  you  must  consider  the  men- 
tal as  well  as  the  ph3sical ;  the  personal  and  pleasant  talk  be- 
tween superior  and  subordinate ;  the  absence  of  nagging ;  the 
presence  of  occasional  encouragement  and  feeling  of  man 
toward  man  rather  than  company  loyalty.  It  has  been  my  ex- 
perience that  men  want  something  personal  to  be  loyal  to.  The 
foreman  typifies  the  company  to  the  average  workman,  and 
the   president   is   the   company  to   the   average   executive. 

As  a  distinguished  speaker  at  an  employment  managers' 
conference  not  so  long  ago  said :  "No  matter  how  fine  the 
company's   policy;     no   matter  how   good   the   company's   inten- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        89 

tions,  look  to  your  foreman,  for  he  is  your  representative  in 
the  eyes  of  the  men.  Men  worked  and  fought  for  Jim  Hill, 
not  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Co,  and  for  Charlie  Schwab 
not  the  Bethlehem   Steel  Co. 

Another  great  cause  of  turnover  is  the  power  of  indis- 
criminate discharge  by  the  foreman;  This  is  practically  sui- 
cidal in  almost  every  case.  Once  in  a  while  we  find  a  fore- 
man big  enough  to  exercise  this  power  with  proper  discretion, 
but  usually  they  are  few  and  far  between  and  it  does  not  pay 
to   rely  upon  it. 

Good  Food  A  Big  Factor 

It  has  been  mj^  experience  that  one  of  the  biggest  factors 
in  keeping  employees  satisfied  in  army  camps,  lumber  camps, 
mining  camps  and  regular  industrial  plants  is  in  keeping  the 
emploA'ees  well  fed  at  a  reasonable  rate.  There  is  no  way  in 
which  an  industrial  organization  can  spend  money  to  greater 
advantage  than  to  spend  it  on  the  employees'  table.  Even  if  it 
amounts  to  a  financial  loss,  even  if  the  operation  of  the  proper 
eating  facilities  requires  a  certain  outlay  bej'ond  the  receipts 
it  will  be  repaid  hundreds,  possibly  thousands,  of  times  in  the 
amount  of  money  saved  by  retaining  contented,  well-fed  and 
happy  employees.  I  have  in  mind  a  large  mail-order  business 
in  Buffalo,  which  feeds  all  its  employees  in  its  own  building, 
and  I  know  of  no  concern  that  operates  on  a  more  efficient 
basis  and  that  has  a  better  looking  or  more  healthy  lot  of  em- 
ploj-ees,  and  judging  from  their  talk,   a  more  satisfied  one. 

One  of  the  biggest  corporations  in  the  world  furnishes 
daily  -its  executives  with  a  luncheon  served  in  a  most  demo- 
cratic manner,  but  the  food  is  as  good  as  can  be  obtained  at 
any  restaurant   in   New  York. 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  LABOR  TURNOVER* 

The  typical  handicraftsman  of  the  Middle  Ages  pursued  the 
same  trade  all  his  life,  with  the  exception  of  the  wanderjahr,  in 
the  same  town.  The  Industrial  Revolution  has  increased  the 
mobility  of  labor  in  at  least  four  different  ways:  (i)  In  the 
movement  between  countries.     Individual  migration  as  opposed 

1  By  Paul  H.  Douglas.  American  Economic  Review.  7:306-16.  June, 
1918. 


90  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

to  group  migration  has  been  the  characteristic  since  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution.  The  growth  of  America,  Canada,  and  Austra- 
lia during  the  nineteenth  century  was  made  possible  largely  by 
the  development  of  steam  power.  (2)  In  the  movement  between 
different  sections  of  the  same  country.  The  American  of  today 
does  not  stay  predominantly  in  the  place  of  his  birth.  He  moves 
about  from  place  to  place.  The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  found 
that  of  22,000  men  investigated  in  79  cities,  only  16  per  cent  had 
been  born  in  the  city  in  which  they  were  then  living.  Of  native- 
born  Americans,  only  one  quarter  were  living  in  the  city  of 
their  birth.  (3)  In  the  rapid  change  of  residence  in  any  given 
locality.  The  modern  worker,  while  in  a  town,  rarely  lives  long 
in  any  one  apartment  or  house.  He  moves  almost  unceasingly. 
(4)  In  the  frequent  changing  of  positions.  The- workman  may 
leave  one  plant  to  enter  either  another  plant  in  the  same  indus- 
try or  one  in  a  totally  different  industrj'.  Recent  studies  have 
shown  how  transitory  the  modern  wage  relation  is  and  how 
temporary  is  the  occupancy  of  any  particular  position. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  consider  solely  this  rapid 
flux  from  position  to  position,  and  to  examine  its  nature,  ex- 
tent, its  cost,  and  its  causes  and  remedies. 

What  is  "Labor  Turnover"  ? 

The  term  "labor  turnover"  has  been  given  to  this  rapid 
change  from  position  to  position.  The  size  of  the  labor  turn- 
over depends  upon  the  proportion  that  the  total  number  of  em- 
ployees hired  during  a  year  bears  to  the  size  0%  the  labor  force 
that  must  be  maintained.  To  illustrate :  a  plant  which  emplojs 
1,000  men  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  a  given  year  hires  during 
that  year  another  thousand.  That  means  that  as  many  men  have 
been  newly  hired  as  were  employed  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
and  that  2,000  men  have  been  employed  during  the  year  to  fill 
1,000  jobs.  This  is  an  excess  of  1,000  men  over  what  would 
have  been  needed  had  the  original  force  stayed  through  the  year, 
and  is  reckoned  as  a  100  per  cent  labor  turnover.  Had  only  500 
new  men  been  hired  during  the  year,  the  turnover  would  have 
been  50  per  cent;  had  2,000  men  been  hired  it  would  have  been 
200  per  cent. 

In   computing  the  labor  turnover,   however,   allowance   must 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        91 

be  made  for  the  growth  or  decay  of  an  industry  during  the  year. 
Suppose  that  the  given  plant,  which  employed  1,000  men  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year,  had  increased  its  labor  force  to  1,200  by 
the  end  of  the  year;  then  200  of  the  1,000  men  newly  hired  would 
not  represent  replacements  but  net  additions  to  the  working 
force,  and  800  would  constitute  the  actual  replacements.  The 
labor  turnover  in  this  case  can  be  reckoned  on  either  of  two 
bases:  (i)  the  number  of  workers  employed  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  which  was  1,200;  (2)  the  average  number  employed  dur- 
ing the  year,  which  would  have  been  1,100  if  the  additions  had 
been  evenly  distributed  throughout  the  year.  The  labor  turn- 
over, by  the  first  method,  would  be  67  per  cent;  by  the  second, 
it  would  be  Ti  per  cent.  Had  only  500  men  been  newly  employed 
during  the  year,  the  turnover  would  have  been  one  of  25  per 
cent  or  27  per  cent;  had  2,000  men  been  engaged,  it  would  have 
been  166  per  cent  or  182  per  cent.  Had  the  total  working  force 
declined  to  800  by  the  end  of  the  year,  the  labor  turnover  would 
have  been  respectively  125  per  cent  or  iii  per  cent;  63  per  cent 
or  56  per  cent ;  250  per  cent  or  222  per  cent.  Because  of  the  con- 
fusion in  computing  the  turnover  in  percentages,  perhaps  a  better 
way  to  measure  it  is  to  state  the  average  length  of  a  job.  If 
three  months,  it  would  be  the  equivalent  of  a  400  per  cent  turn- 
over. Few  investigations  have  measured  the  turnover  in  this 
latter  way,  however. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  some  labor  turnover  is  inevitable.  Men 
who  die  or  fall  sick  or  are  injured  must  be  replaced.  Since  the 
men  and  women  in  industry  are  predominantly  in  those  age 
groups  where  mortality  is  lowest,  it  is  extremely  probable  that 
the  death  rate  does  not  greatly  exceed  10  per  1,000,  or  i  per  cent. 
Sydenstricker  and  Warren  estimate  that  the  American  wage- 
earner  loses  on  an  average  about  nine  days  a  year  because  of 
sickness  alone.  On  a  basis  of  300  working  days  during  the  year, 
this  would  be  an  average  loss  of  3  per  cent  of  the  working  time. 
But  a  corresponding  3  per  cent  labor  turnover  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow,  because  illness  that  is  only  of  short  duration  does 
not  occasion  replacement.  Industrial  accidents  furnish  another 
small  source  of  the  labor  turnover.  Non-fatal  accidents  may 
necessitate  a  replacement  of  from  i  per  cent  to  2  per  cent. 
However,  taken  all  together,  these  causes  would  not  be  re- 
sponsible for  a  turnover  of  more  than  5  or  6  per  cent. 


92  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


The  Amount  of  the  Labor  Turnover 

No  complete  survey  of  the  amount  of  labor  turnover  in  plants 
throughout  the  country  is  as  yet  forthcoming.  The  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  has  been  investigating  this  problem  for  over  two 
years,  but  the  results  of  their  research  have  not  yet  been  made 
public.  Several  studies  of  typical  plants  in  difiFerent  sections  of 
the  country,  however,  afford  a  birdseye  view  of  the  actual  situa- 
tion. 

Mr.  W.  A.  Grieves,  of  the  Jeffery  Manufacturing  Companj^, 
in  December,  1914,  made  the  first  detailed  analysis  of  the  extent 
of  the  labor  turnover.  Mr.  Grieves  obtained  the  employment 
figures  of  20  metal  plants  in  the  Middle  West  and  found  that  to 
maintain  an  average  of  44,000  hands  during  the  year,  they  were 
compelled  to  hire  a  total  of  69,000.  The  labor  turnover  for  these 
plants  was  consequently  157  per  cent  for  the  year. 

Mr.  Magnus  Alexander,  of  the  General  Electric  Company, 
published  a  study  on  this  subject  in  1915.  After  an  investigation 
of  the  employment  records  for  1912  of  twelve  metal  manufactur- 
ing plants  in  six  states,  he  found  that  this  group,  which  employed 
37,274  workmen  at  the  beginning  and  43,971  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  had  hired  during  that  year  42,571  new  employees.  Deduct- 
ing the  net  increase  of  6,697  in  the  working  force,  there  were 
35,874  replacements  during  that  year.  Using  the  number  em- 
ployed at  the  end  of  the  year  as  a  base,  this  would  be  a  labor 
turnover  of  82  per  cent.  Supposing  that  the  increase  had  been 
evenly  distributed  throughout  the  year  and  using  40,623  as  a 
base,  the  turnover  for  these  plants  would  be  88  per  cent. " 

Mr.  Boyd  Fisher,  after  analyzing  the  employment  figures  for 
the  last  year  in  57  Detroit  plants,  found  that  the  average  turn- 
over for  the  group  was  252  per  cent.  The  Ford  Company  from 
October,  1912,  to  October,  1913,  hired  54,000  men  to  maintain  an 
average  working  force  of  13,000.  This  was  a  labor  turnover  of 
416  per  cent  for  the  year.  The  figures  from  other  plants  are 
almost  equally  striking.  A  large  Philadelphia  concern  had  a 
labor  turnover  of  100  per  cent  in  191 1.  The  turnover  of  the 
Plimpton  Press  was  186  per  cent,  in  1912.  The  Pacific  Tele- 
phone and  Telegraph  Company,  of  Portland,  Oregon,  hired  202 
new  girls  in  three  months  to  maintain  an  average  force  of  700. 
If  this  is  typical  of  the  year,  the  turnover  was  115  per  cent.    Mr. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        93 

Gregg  has  stated  that  the  turnover  of  the  carding  department 
of  a  certain  cotton  mill  was  over  500  per  cent  for  one  j^ear. 
Representatives  of  the  Goodrich  Tire  Company  have  declared 
that  their  turnover  in  former  years  was  nearly  200  per  cent  and 
that  for  the  last  year  it  has  been  even  higher ! 

The  turnover  for  juvenile  labor  is  especially  high.  The 
Board  of  Education  of  Rochester,  New  York,  found  that  boys 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  changed  their  jobs  on 
the  average  every  seventeen  weeks.  This  is  a  turnover  for 
juvenile  labor  of  over  300  per  cent.  The  employment  records 
of  Swift  and  Company  of  Chicago  show  that  the  average  term 
of  employment  for  a  boy  in  their  service  was  only  three  and  a 
half  months.  This  means  that  nearly  three  boys  and  a  half  are 
employed  every  year  for  each  position  or,  to  be  accurate,  that 
there  is  a  labor  turnover  of  342  per  cent.  Figures  from  In- 
dianapolis, Indiana,  show  that  of  6,710  jobs  held  by  children  leav- 
ing school,  7  per  cent  were  for  less  than  two  weeks ;  15  per  cent 
for  less  than  a  month;  30  per  cent  less  than  two  months;  and 
48  per  cent,  or  practically  one  half,  for  less  than  three  months. 

The  figures  for  manufacturing  indicate,  therefore,  that  the 
turnover  for  this  branch  of  industry  is  extremely  high.  Mr. 
Ernest  M.  Hopkins,  who  has  had  a  great  deal  of  experience  as 
an  employment  manager  for  several  large  industrial  concerns, 
has  said  that  a  conservative  estimate  for  many  industries  would 
be  100  per  cent.  Mr.  Ethelbert  Stewart,  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  field  work  for  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  has  stated 
that  some  firms  have  as  high  a  turnover  as  400  per  cent. 

The  turnover  in  many  branches  of  agricultural  and  construc- 
tion work  is  even  greater.  Professor  Carleton  Parker,  in  a 
most  interesting  study  of  casual  labor  on  the  Pacific  coast,  cites 
a  dried  fruit  farm  in  California  that  had  a  monthly  turnover  of 
176  per  cent;  a  construction  job  in  the  Sierras,  with  a  normal 
force  of  950  men,  which  had  a  monthly  turnover  of  158  per  cent; 
and  a  ranch  with  a  nine  weeks'  fruit  season  which  had  a  monthly 
turnover  of  245  per  cent.  After  a  careful  investigation,  he  con- 
cluded that  the  average  duration  of  a  job  in  certain  kinds  of 
work  was  as  follows : 

Days 

Lumber   camps    15-30 

Construction    work     10 

Harvesting    7 

Mining    60 

Canning    30 

Orchard  work    7-10 


94  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


The  Cost  of  the  Labor  Turnover 

A  high  labor  turnover  is  not  always  an  economic  waste  to 
the  employer.  A  plant  with  many  rush  orders  paying  high 
wages  may  find  it  to' its  economic  interest  to  drive  its  workmen 
at  such  a  pace  that  they  will  be  exhausted  at  the  end  of  a  few 
months.  The  old  group  of  workmen  can  then  be  discharged  and 
a  new^  group  emploj'ed.  Many  munition  factories  in  the  United 
States  followed  such  a  policy  during  the  year  1915  and  1916. 
Though  this  is  of  course  poor  economy  from  the  standpoint  of 
social  efficiency,  and  has  been  so  recognized  in  both  England  and 
America  under  the  stress  of  V\ar,  yet  it  may  well  have  been  a 
paying  policy  for  many  firms. 

As  a  rule,  however,  the  employer  suffers  a  very  real  economic 
loss  from  a  high  turnover.  Although  it  is  impossible  to  obtain 
exact  figures  on  the  cost  of  the  excessive  hiring  and  firing,  care- 
ful estimates  are  fortunately  available.  The  principal  items  that 
enter  into  the  cost  of  employing  new  men  are : 

1.  The  clerical  cost  of  hiring  and  firing.  This  includes  the 
time  of  the  official  (generally  the  overseer)  who  discharges  the 
old  worker  and  employs  the  new,  plus  the  time  spent  on  the  addi- 
tional pay-roll  and  other  records. 

2.  The  cost  of  the  instruction  given  the  new  employees  by 
the  foremen  and  the  assistants.  Even  if  the  workmen  is  experi- 
enced, considerable  time  must  be  spent  in  explaining  the  details 
peculiar  to  that  particular  plant.  The  cost  of  training  a  worker 
for  a  skilled  or  semiskilled  position  is  much  larger  still. 

3.  Decreased  production  by  the  new  worker  before  coming 
up  to  full  working  capacity.  It  takes  time  to  "warm  up"  to  one's 
work  and  reach  the  maximum  of  efficiency.  Rapid  shifting  of 
men  perpetuates  this  period  of  novitiation  with  its  greatly 
diminished  productivity. 

4.  Breakage  and  damage  caused  by  the  new  man.  This  in- 
cludes :  (a)  the  actual  breakage  of  a  machine  or  tool ;  (b)  the 
stoppage  of  a  machine,  or  the  delay  of  work;  (c)  accidents  to 
the  workers,  for  which  the  employer  is  liable  under  workmen's 
compensation  laws;  (d)  the  wasting  or  destruction  of  material 
upon  which  the  new  worker  is  employed. 

5.  The  cost  of  idle  machinery  and  equipment  where  the  old 
position  is  not  immediately  filled. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        95 

The  cost  per  man  naturally  varies  with  the  type  of  worker. 
Alexander  classifies  the  employees  under  five  heads : 

A.  Highly  skilled  mechanics  who  have  spent  years  in  attain- 
ing their  present  proficiency. 

B.  Mechanics  of  lesser  skill  who  secured  their  training  in  a 
year  or  two. 

C.  Operatives  who,  without  previous  experience,  can  acquire 
a  fair  degree  of  efficiency  within  a  few  months. 

D.  Unskilled  laborers  needing  practically  no  training. 

E.  The  clerical  force. 

His  careful  estimate  of  the  expense  per  man  for  the  various 
groups  is  as  follows : 

'               A  $48.00 

B  58.S0 

C  73-50 

D  8.S0 

E  29.00 

This  is  of  course  onlj'  an  estimate,  although  a  very  careful 
one.  Mr.  Grieves  estimated  that  the  per  capita  cost  averaged  at 
least  $40.  Mr.  John  M.  Williams,  of  the  Plumb  Company  of 
Philadelphia,  a  tool-making  concern,  states  that  "the  final  cost 
per  experienced  man  is  over  $100." 

Mr.  Alexander  estimated  that  the  annual  unnecessary  ex- 
pense for  the  twelve  factories  that  he  covered  was  between 
$830,000  and  $1,000,000.  If  Mr.  Grieves'  estimate  of  an  average 
cost  of  $40  is  used,  the  total  yearly  loss  for  the  twenty  firms 
which  he  investigated  was  $1,760,000  or  an  average  of  $88,000  per 
firm.  The  yearly  cost  to  the  Ford  Company  for  its  416  per  cent 
turnover  was  over  $2,000,000.  Since  these  are  figures  for  only 
a  few  plants,  the  annual  cost  for  the  country  as  a  whole  must 
be  tremendous.  A  most  conservative  estimate  would  be  between 
one  and  two  hundred  millions. 

Causes  and  Remedies  of  the  Labor  Turnover 

This  excessive  shifting  from  position  to  position  clearly 
demonstrates  that  something  is  wrong  with  industry.  In  diag- 
nosing its  causes,  we  are  at  the  same  time  enabled  to  suggest 
certain  remedies  that  may  lessen  it. 

Some  of  the  more  prominent  causes  are: 

I.  Poor  methods  of  employment  and  discharge.  Men  are 
generally  hired  en  masse  with  little  regard  to  their  qualifications 


96  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

and  fired  summarily  if  they  do  not  make  good  on  the  jobs  upon 
which  they  are  tried  out.  The  power  of  employment  and  dis- 
charge is  generally  vested  in  the  foreman  of  each  department. 
These  men  are  rarely  skilled  in  the  tactful  handling  and  judging 
of  men. 

2.  Poor  methods  of  promotion  within  the  factory.  Work 
in  one  position  rarely  leads  to  a  higher  position.  The  workman, 
in  any  particular  plant,  relies  therefore  upon  a  change  to  some 
other  plant  to  better  his  status. 

3.  The  seasonal  nature^of  many  industries.  The  turnover  is 
necessarily  large  where  the  volume  of  output  is  not  evenly  dis- 
tributed over  the  year.  After  the  "peak"  has  been  passed,  many 
workmen  must  be  laid  off.  If  the  peak  reoccurs  within  a  few 
months,  a  new  force  must  be  employed.  Positions  of  short 
duration  spelling  a  high  turnover  are  the  inevitable  concomitants 
of  seasonal  industry. 

4.  Juvenile  labor.  Children  rarely  stay  long  in  one  position. 
The  14-16  year-old  child  is  restless  and  wants  to  move  about. 
A  regular,  settled  employment  rarely  satisfies  him. 

5.  The  monotony  of  modern  factory  labor.  This  is  rarely 
mentioned  as  a  cause  of  labor  turnover,  but  on  a  priori  grounds 
we  must  infer  that  it  exercises  tremendous  induence.  Special- 
ization and  routine  labor  have  rendered  industry  so  dull  that  it 
is  no  wonder  the  modern  artizan  frequently  throws  up  his  job 
and  seeks  another  plant  from  sheer  weariness. 

6.  Low  wages.  A  plant  that  pays  low  wages  cannot  hold 
men  long.  They  regard,  the  job  as  a  makeshift  and  will  leave  it 
as  soon  as  they  can  find  another. 

Thus  some  of  the  causes  of  this  newly  discovered  phenome- 
non are  long-recognized  evils  while  some  have  been  but  newly 
brought  to  light.  The  remedy  most  frequently  proposed  by  stu- 
dents of  the  situation  is  the  installation  of  a  specialized  employ- 
ment department  to  have  complete  charge  of  the  hiring,  handling, 
and  firing  of  men.  In  most  factories  the  task  of  employment 
and  the  discharge  of  men  is  confided  to  the  foremen  of  the 
various  departments.  Hands  are  both  hired  and  fired  in  a  hit 
or  miss  fashion.  Many  firms  keep  no  employment  records  at 
all  and  most  of  those  that  do  keep  such  records  have  only  scanty 
material.  They  seldom  ask  the  reasons  for  the  workman's 
leaving;  nor  do  they  measure  the  turnover  department  by  de- 
partment.   The  centralization  of  employment  and  discharge  and 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        97 

the  concentration  of  responsibility  would  permit  the  use  of  scien- 
tific methods. 

Such  a  department  could  lessen  the  turnover  in  the  following 
ways: 

1.  By  the  use  of  a  better  method  of  selecting  employees. 
Phj^sical  tests  would  eliminate  a  considerable  number  that  are 
now  employed  only  to  be  shortly  discharged.  Though  mental 
tests  have  not  developed  as  yet  so  far  as  to  make  it  possible  to 
assign  men  to  the  particular  jobs  for  which  they  are  best 
adapted,  at  least  those  mentally  incompetent  for  industry  could 
be  eliminated.  The  various  jobs  in  the  plant  could,  moreover, 
be  analyzed  in  respect  to  the  amount  of  skill  and  intelligence  re- 
quired of  the  operative.  The  workers  could  then  be  divided  into 
rough  groups  according  to  their  previous  training  and  innate 
mental  ability  and  then  assigned  to  the  corresponding  grade  of 
work.  A  centralized  personnel  department  could  follow  up  and 
verify  work  references  and  thereby  classify  workers  on  the 
basis  of  past  experience.  And  it  could  maintain  a  waiting  list, 
so  that  when  new  men  were  needed,  they  could  be  chosen  largely 
from  men  about  whom  something  was  known  instead  of,  as  now, 
being  picked  up  off  the  streets. 

2.  By  a  system  of  follow-up  work  for  the  new  employees. 
This  would  include  taking  them  to  their  place  of  work  and  in- 
dicating a  friendly  interest  towards  them.  The  training  should 
be  given  preferably  by  special  instructors  and  not  confided  to 
the  foremen.  In  many  cases  it  is  best  to  give  the  new  men  pre- 
liminary training  before  they  are  actually  placed  in  any  depart- 
ment. Moreover,  the  working  conditions  should  be  closely 
watched  by  the  personnel  department  in  order  to  ensure  proper 
ventilation,  lighting,  the  prevention  of  dust,  and  the  lessening  of 
fire  and  accident  risks.  To  keep  a  record  of  absences  classified 
by  individuals  and  by  causes  would  also  be  a  legitimate  task  for 
such  a  department. 

3.  By  an  investigation  of  the  reasons  for  the  successes  and 
failures  of  individual  workmen.  The  method  commonly  em- 
ployed is  to  discharge  a  workman  if  he  fails  to  make  good  on  a 
particular  job.  This  involves  a  great  waste.  A  workman  may 
fail  on  a  specific  job  and  yet  be  a  valuable  man  for  the  concern. 
It  may  be  that  the  antagonistic  attitude  of  the  foreman  or  the 
men  is  such  that  he  cannot  do  himself  justice.  It  may  be  that 
he  is  ill-adapted  to  that  particular  position  but  would  be  per- 


98  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

fectly  competent  in  a  position  in  some  other  department.  The 
worker  embodies  a  considerable  investment  of  capital  by  the  em- 
ployer and  is  worthy  of  at  least  another  trial  before  he  is  dis- 
charged. The  personnel  department  can  find  out  the  reasons  for 
his  lack  of  success  and  act  accordingly. 

Should  the  worker  succeed  in  a  given  position,  he  should  be 
commended  and  assured  promotion.  A  well  defined  promotion 
policy  would  indeed  save  many  a  plant  a  great  deal  of  dissatis- 
faction and  lessened  efficiency.  The  efficiency  of  the  plant  and 
the  loyalty  of  the  workers  may  be  further  heightened  by  the  in- 
stitution of  discussion  groups  at  which  plant  problems  can  be 
explained  and  workmen's  ideas  solicited.  This  will  also  serve 
to  bring  to  light  hidden  talent  which  could  be  utilized  in  execu- 
tive work. 

The  creation  of  such  a  personnel  department,  charged  with 
these  functions,  is  but  the  logical  extension  to  the  human  side 
of  industry  of  the  scientific  principles  that  have  hitherto  been 
employed  on  the  mechanical  side.  It  merely  strips  the  depart- 
ment foreman  of  his  employment  functions  and  enables  him  to 
concentrate  his  attention  upon  the  actual  production  of  goods. 
With  this  splitting  of  the  task,  greater  specialization  and  effi- 
ciency can  result.  The  centralized  employment  department  has 
been  tried  in  many  plants,  and  on  the  whole  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful. Some  illustrations  of  its  success  are:  (i)  the  reduc- 
tion by  the  Dcnnison  Manufacturing  Company  of  its  turnover 
from  68  per  cent  to  37  per  cent  a  year;  (2)  the  reduction  of  the 
turnover  by  the  Joseph  &  Feiss  Company  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  to 
one  third  its  former  amount;  (3)  the  lowering  of  the  Plimpton 
Press  turnover  till  it  is  now  only  10  per  cent  a  year.  Other 
factors  besides  that  of  the  creation  of  such  a  department  con- 
tribute to  the  marked  decrease  in  three  of  these  plants.  Forms 
of  profit-sharing  were  introduced  into  the  Dennison  and  Ford 
companies,  while  the  Dennison  and  Feiss  plants  also  succeeded 
in  regularizing  their  output ;  (4)  the  decrease  in  the  Ford  turn- 
over from  416  per  cent  to  less  than  80  per  cent. 

Small  concerns  would  probably  not  find  it  profitable  to  create 
a  special  personnel  department.  Consequently  this  is  one  of  the 
advantages  of  large-scale  production.  Whether  there  is  a 
greater  turnover  in  the  larger  plants  which  will  off^set  this  ad- 
vantage is  a  question  that  cannot  be  answered  at  present. 
Profit-sharing  is  another  method  of  ensuring  greater  perma- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        99 

nence  of  labor.  Mr  Boris  Emmet,  who  investigated  profit-shar- 
ing schemes  for  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  says,  "All  of  the 
informants,  without  exception,  were  also  of  the  opinion  that  the 
establishment  of  the  plans  have  a  tendency  to  reduce  the  per- 
centage turnover  of  their  working  organization." 

In  so  far  as  the  labor  turnover  is  caused  by  the  seasonal 
nature  of  industry,  the  creation  of  a  specialized  employment  de- 
partment would  offer  no  remedy.  Once  the  cost  of  labor  turn- 
over is  recognized,  the  employers  will  see  that  the  regularization 
of  industry  and  the  smoothing  of  the  peaks  of  production  will 
be  economically  beneficial  to  them.  The  efforts  of  the  Cloth- 
craft  Shops  of  Cleveland  and  the  Dennison  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany have  been  turned  especially  in  this  direction. 

The  large  turnover  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
is  merely  another  proof  of  the  economic  and  social  wastefulness 
of  this  class  of  labor.  Industry  and  society  would  be  much  bet- 
ter off  were  the  age  of  entrance  into  industry  raised  generally 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years.  In  so  far  as  the  labor  turnover 
is  due  to  the  monotony  of  machine  labor,  few  remedies  within 
the  plant  can  be  devised.  The  men,  to  be  sure,  can  be  trans- 
ferred from  one  machine  to  another.  But  this  is  about  all.  The 
balking  of  man's  innate  tendency  towards  contrivance  seems  to 
be  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  machine  era.  New  avenues 
must  be  opened,  outside  of  industry,  for  its  legitimate  expres- 
sion. 

Whatever  may  be  the  final  steps  taken  to  solve  this  problem, 
its  recognition  signalizes  a  marked  advance  in  the  development 
of  human  engineering. 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  LABOR  TURNOVER* 

Recently  manufacturers  have  been  directing  their  attention  to 
the  money  loss  caused  by  the  large  number  of  employees  who 
leave  their  employment.  We  believe  that  the  first  step  toward 
eliminating  this  loss  is  to  obtain  the  cooperation  of  foremen, 
and  to  this  end  tlie  subject  of  labor  turnover  and  its  cost  was 
presented  at  a  recent  executives'  meeting  of  our  company  by 
the  employment  manager  as  follows : 

You  foremen  are  continually  hearing  from  the  production  de- 
partment and  from  the  shop  superintendent  about  getting  work 

*  By  M.  C.  Hobart.     American  Machinist.     48:821-2.     May  16,   1918. 


100  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

out  on  time,  and  from  these  same  people  and  from  the  inspec- 
tion department  about  cutting  down  spoiled  work.  Now  you 
can't  do  these  things  by  yourselves ;  you  have  to  accomplish 
them  through  the  men  who  are  working  under  you.  Maybe  you 
say  to  yourselves  that  it  is  all  very  well  to  be  calling  for  more 
production  and  less  spoiled  work,  but  look  at  the  incompetent 
help  that  the  employment  department  is  getting  for  us.  But 
why  is  it  necessary  to  hire  so  much  new  help?  The  reason  that 
last  new  man  was  hired  for  you  is  because  someone  had  quit. 
And  he  not  only  quit  working  for  the  company  but  he  quit  work- 
ing for  you.  And  if  he  had  not  quit  your  department  he  would 
still  be  working  for  us  and  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to 
hire  a  new  man  who  probably  was  not  nearly  so  good  a  work- 
man. 

Men  Not  Discharged 

Most  of  the  men  who  leave  our  employ  are  not  discharged; 
they  go  of  their  own  account.  Two  years  ago  40  per  cent,  of 
the  men  employed  were  hired  to  replace  men  who  were  dis- 
charged, while  last  year  only  20  per  cent,  of  the  new  men  were 
necessitated,  because  of  discharging  old  employees.  In  many 
cases  discharge  was  due  to  the  incompetence  of  the  new  men 
who  had  to  be  engaged  because  of  the  scarcity  of  competent 
workmen. 

Last  year  we  employed  1130  men  to  maintain  an  average 
working  force  of  373  men.  Of  these  1130  men  170  never  re- 
ported for  work.  There  were  1045  men  who  were  removed  from 
our  payroll  last  year,  which  is  nearly  three  times  the  number  of 
men  we  had  working  here  on  the  average  throughout  the  year. 
To  be  exact  it  is  280  per  cent,  of  the  average  w^orking  force,  and 
this  is  what  we  mean  by  a  labor  turnover  of  280  per  cent.  It  is 
the  ratio  of  the  number  of  removals  from  the  payroll  to  the 
average  number  on  the  payroll  for  a  given  period. 

There  is  not  one  of  you  who  at  the  end  of  the  week  would 
tear  up  his  salary  check  and  throw  it  away.  Not  even  after 
thinking  about  it  a  good  many  times  would  you  do  so.  Yet 
every  time  a  man  walks  out  of  the  factory,  either  by  quitting  or 
being  discharged,  it  means  a  loss  of  at  least  $40  to  the  com- 
pany. Probably  it  is  not  quite  that  much  in  the  case  of  a  boy  or 
of  an  unskilled  laborer,  but  it  is  much  more  in  the  case  of  a 
skilled  workman.     Forty  dollars  is  the  average  figure  for  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       loi 

men  on  our  payroll.  That  meant  a  loss  of  $40,000  to  us  last  year 
on  account  of  quitting  and  discharges.  When  you  begin  to 
realize  that  you  foremen  are  the  ones  who  are  in  direct  contact 
all  the  time  with  the  men  and  who  are  responsible  for  giving 
them  the  right  start  when  they  enter  our  emploj%  and  seeing 
that  all  get  a  square  deal,  that  they  understand  the  company's 
attitude  toward  them;  when  you  begin  to  realize  that  you  are 
the  ones  who  must  interpret  to  them  this  attitude  and  that  their 
staying  with  us  depends  in  a  large  measure  upon  your  success 
in  accomplishing  this,  the  question  will  look  considerably  more 
important  to  you,  especially  when  its  value  can  be  reduced  to  a 
dollars-and-cents  basis. 

But  perhaps  you  do  not  agree  with  me  that  it  means  a  loss 
of  from  thirty  to  fifty  dollars  every  time  we  lose  a  man.  Let  us 
spend  a  few  moments  looking  at  the  figures  in  the  case. 

The  New-Man  Expense 

Our  help-wanted  advertisements  last  year  cost  us  50c.  for 
each  new  man.  The  time  of  the  employment  department  and 
the  payroll  clerk  in  hiring  the  man  and  entering  his  name  on 
our  records  amounted  to  75c.  for  each  man.  The  foreman's  time 
spent  with  the  new  man  in  getting  him  properly  started  on  his 
work  and  familiar  with  our  methods  takes,  or  should  take  if  it  is 
properly  done,  at  the  very  least  10  minutes  a  day  for  a  month, 
which  means  $4.50,  plus  the  time  of  some  older  workman  who 
should  be  set  to  keep  an  eye  on  the  new  man  and  help  him  along, 
which  means  an  additional  dollar. 

Next  is  the  wear  and  tear  on  the  machinery — an  important 
item.  As  is  shown  by  our  machinery  and  tool  repair  account 
each  month,  a  man  does  not  have  to  smash  manj'  gears  in  the 
change  gear  box  of  a  lathe,  or  break  many  sixty-dollar  hobs  or 
thirty-dollar  cutters  or  do  any  of  the  other  thousand-and-one 
things  that  a  green  man  does  to  make  the  cost  of  this  wear  and 
tear  on  machinery'  amount  to  an  average  of  $12  for  each  new 
man. 

Then  we  have  the  loss  of  production  owing  to  the  new  man 
not  reaching  the  normal  production  rate  in  from  three  to  six 
weeks.  Deficiencj-  reports  show  that  this  loss  is  a  large  one. 
For  the  first  two  or  three  days  a  new  man  is  not  likely  to  do 
more  than  half  the  usual  amount  of  work;  from  this  on  he  im- 


102  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

proves  until  at  the  end  of  a  month  he  should  reach  the  standard. 
If  he  loses  many  hours  during  the  first  few  days  he  does  not 
have  to  lose  many  such  in  the  following  weeks  to  have  lost  30 
hours'  time  in  production  while  he  has  been  breaking  in.  And 
30  hours  means,  with  his  wages  and  overhead,  $25.50. 

But  we  are  not  tlirough  yet.  The  cost  of  work  spoiled  in  the 
shop  during  the  month  of  December  was  over  $600  and  the  cost 
of  correcting  mistakes  was  $1300,  making  a  total  of  $1900  for 
the  month. 

Forty  men  were  taken  off  the  payroll  and  replaced  by  others 
during  that  month,  and  about  the  same  number  for  November. 
This  $1900  means  $48  apiece  for  each  new  man  hired  during 
December,  and  I  think  you  will  admit  that  much  of  the  spoilage 
and  mistakes  are  due  to  new  men,  although  not  entirely  so. 
Suppose  then  that  we  divide  this  given  figure  by  four  and  call  it 
$12. 

Now  we  come  to  the  accidents  and  injuries,  which  are  greater 
in  number  with  new  men  than  with  older  employees  and  for 
which  $3  is  a  conservative  figure. 

Poor  Equipment 

Somewhat  related  to  the  item  of  decreased  production  is  the 
loss  caused  by  maintaining  more  equipment  than  would  be  neces- 
sary were  it  not  for  this  loss.  On  a  basis  of  10  per  cent,  loss  in 
production  on  each  new  man  for  the  first  month  of  his  work, 
and  an  average  of  80  new  men  a  month  for  last  year,  this  means 
that  22  per  cent,  of  our  equipment  is  working  only  90  per  cent, 
efficient,  so  far  as  time  consumed  on  the  work  done  by  new  men 
is  concerned.  The  interest  on  this  equipment  at  10  per  cent,  a 
year  amounts  to  50c.  for  each  new  man  hired.  Let  us  now  see 
what  we  have : 

For  advertising $0.50 

For  hiring  and  clerical   work 75 

For  instruction 5-SO 

For  wear  and  tear  on  machinery  and  tools 12.00 

For  loss  of  production    25.50 

For  spoiled   work  and  mistakes 12.00 

For  accidents    300 

For  interest  on  extra  equipment SO 

making  a  total  of  $59.75  as  the  cost  to  place  a  new  man  at  work, 
and  this  is  a  very  conservative  estimate  in  the  light  of  studies 
that  have  been  made  in  industrial  plants  throughout  the  country. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       103 

Therefore  I  say  we  have  a  real  problem  to  face  when  desirable 
men  leave  our  employ. 

What  are  some  of  the  reasons  for  a  man  quitting  his  posi- 
tion and  what  goes  on  in  his  mind  at  the  time  of  making  the 
change  ? 

Dissatisfaction   With    Wages  Not  Always   the   Cause 

In  the  first  place  the  man  may  be  dissatisfied  with  his  wages. 
But  dissatisfaction  with  wages  will  not  alone  induce  a  man  to 
give  up  his  job.  A  man  has  to  feel  that  he  is  going  to  be  bene- 
fited all  around  before  he  will  change,  and  some  of  the  things 
that  contribute  to  his  decision  to  leave  are  unsatisfactory  sur- 
roundings, long  hours,  lack  of  a  consistent  policy  of  advance- 
ment, lack  of  instruction  and  faulty  machinery  or  tools. 

Now  there  are  several  characteristics  of  workmen  which  may 
lead  to  giving  one  or  more  of  the  above  conditions  undue  prom- 
inence in  his  mind  and  cause  him  to  leave. 

First  is  his  lack  of  specialized  training.  Most  of  our  men 
cannot  even  do  one  thing  and  do  it  better  than  anyone  else,  so 
that  he  has  no  reason  for  remaining  in  one  particular  trade  or 
place. 

Then  there  is  so  much  seasonal  employment,  so  much  care- 
less hiring  and  discharging  of  men,  and  it  is  so  easy  to  move 
from  one  flat  to  another  or  from  one  town  to  another  that  the 
man  does  not  throw  himself  fully  into  his  work  and  identify 
himself  with  the  company. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  there  comes  a  time  when  things 
begin  to  go  wrong  either  at  home  or  in  the  shop ;  the  man  be- 
comes discouraged  or  nervous  or  even  physically  ill,  and  almost 
any  other  job  looks  better  to  him  than  the  one  he  has. 

You  may  be  interested  in  knowing  that  there  is  a  definite 
physiological  and  psychological  basis  for  such  a  mental  condi- 
tion as  this,  and  it  is  one  of  the  duties  of  the  employment  de- 
partment to  avoid  hiring  men  in  whom  such  characteristics  are 
developed  to  any  great  extent.  Dr.  Herman  M.  Adier,  formerly 
of  the  Harvard  Medical  School  and  the  Boston  Psychopathic 
Hospital  and  now  of  Chicago,  made  a  study  of  the  cases  of  a 
number  of  unemployed  men  and  their  personality  as  related  to 
their  unemployment.  And  in  just  a  short  part  of  his  report  I 
want  you  to  see  how  well  he  describes  some  of  the  men  who  have 
worked  or  are  now  working  under  you. 


104  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Their  reaction  to  the  world  is  entirely  egocentric.  No  matter  what 
they  experience,  what  they  desire,  their  own  ego  is  the  center  of  the  plot 
and  dominates  everything.  They  are  always  ready  to  undertake  new 
schemes;  they  are  usually  working  for  the  betterment  of  the  rest  of  the 
world  and  claim  all  sorts  of  altruistic  motives,  and  even  may  be  altruistic 
to  some  extent,  seeking  merely  the  satisfaction  of  being  in  the  limelight. 
Or  the  emotion  may  be  a  depressed  one  and  the  individuals  are  conten- 
tious, surly,  suspicious,  claim  abuse,  recognize  no  kindness  that  is  done 
them,   appreciate   no    favors,   etc. 

This  is  by  far  the  largest  group  in  our  table,  comprising  43  cases  out 
of  100,  or  almost  half. 

The  Lack  of  Ability 

Emotional  instability  was  the  cause  of  the  failure  of  the  remaining 
twenty-two  individuals.  (One-third  failed  through  lack  of  actual  ability.) 
Under  this  heading  Dr.  Adler  included  all  the  cases  that  showed  "sufficient 
mental  ability  and  judgment  to  satisfy  the  ordinary  demands  of  life,  and 
who  showed  no  marked  tendency  to  the  egocentric  attitude  or  to  enlarge 
on  their  own  significance,  accomplishments  or  jealousies  of  others.  These 
include  the  individuals  who  show  excessive  emotional  reactions,  who  are 
at  times  buoyant  beyond  all  reason.  .  .  .  Their  minds  are  very  active, 
they  have  many  new  ideas,  they  have  a  marvelous  imagination,  they  un- 
dertake a  dozen  different  obligations,  none  of  which  they  can  carry  out. 
They  tire  of  one  thing  before  it  is  half  begun  and  go  rapidly  to  another. 
In  another  mood  they  may  show  an  interference  with  thought,  a  lack  of 
initiative,  a  tendency  to  be  unhappy,  a  brooding  disposition.  They  are  ex- 
tremely irascible,  usually  on  account  of  some  external  provocation.  The 
latter  may  be  very  slight.  Impulsiveness  amounting  often  to  an  obsession 
is   frequently   found. 

Here  is  an  astonishing  and  highly  suggestive  finding.  Among  a  hun- 
dred persons  for  whom  unemployment  was  a  serious  problem,  two  failed 
for  temperamental  faults  for  one  who  was  found  inadequate  to  his  work. 

Knowing  these  things,  what  can  we  do  to  improve  condi- 
tions? Our  executive  meetings  are  by  no  means  devoted  only  to 
the  subject  of  employment,  but  we  can  well  devote  some  of  our 
time  to  a  further  consideration  of  that  subject.  We  can  well 
broaden  our  present  methods  as  to  promotion  and  transfer,  pro- 
viding rest  periods  during  the  day  and  giving  our  new  men  the 
proper  start  and  instruction  in  their  work.  And  betterment  in 
this  direction  is  impossible  without  the  earnest  cooperation  of  all 
our  foremen. 

HANDLING  MEN' 

Everyone  will  admit  that  good  management  calls  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  technique  of  the  business  as  well  as  for  a  thoro 
appreciation  of  system  and  its  uses;  but  more  important  still 
is  the  ability  to  select  the  right  men  for  the  work,  to  shape 
the  assignment  of  work  to  fit  the  men  available,  and  to  ob- 
tain their  co-operation.  It  may  be  stated  at  once  that  if  you 
have  at  the  head  of  an  organization,  a  man  who  combines  the 

'By  G.  S.  Radford.     Independent.     92:340.     November  17,  1917. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       105 

necessary  technical  knowledge  with  the  qualities  of  real  lead- 
ership, and  if  that  man  is  surrounded  by  capable  department 
heads,  foremen,  and  sub-foremen,  then  practically  all  ques- 
tions of  handling  are  solved.  This  statement  might  seem  to 
be  begging  the  question,  but  it  is  made  to  indicate  the  all  im- 
portant part  played  by  the  human  factor  in  management. 

If  you  will  consider  a  large  organization  as  a  machine  for 
doing  a  certain  kind  of  work,  you  will  note  that  the  various 
departments,  divisions,  and  subordinate  groups  of  workers  can 
be  compared  to  the  different  parts  of  the  machine.  The  work 
of  the  separate  groups  must  be  so  interlocked,  articulated  and 
correlated,  that  all  will  work  together  smoothly  in  doing  their 
share  toward  the  orderly  accomplishment  of  the  main  objec- 
tive. System  plays  its  part  in  assisting  in  this  co-ordination. 
That  part  of  system  which  relates  to  cost-keeping  measures 
the  output  of  the  various  parts.  The  act  of  organizing,  or 
distributing  the  work  among  the  men  available,  is  comparable 
to  designing.  It  is  for  this  reason,  just  as  design  is  all  im- 
portant in  engineering,  that  a  definite  and  proper  distribution 
of  duties  is  a  most  important  step  in  handling  a  large  number 
of  men. 

Probably  you  are  more  interested  in  actual  practice  than 
you  are  in  theory;  so  I  shall  now  read  the  introduction  to  a 
written  organization  prepared  for  several  departments  of  a 
large  plant.  This  introduction  embodies  the  things  that  the 
writer's  experience  has  shown  to  be  desirable  to  impress  on  a 
number  of  men  who  are  going  to  work  together. 

1.  The  purpose  of  publishing  this  outline  of  organization  is  to  defin- 
itely establish  the  division  of  duties  and  to  secure  co-ordination  by  pro- 
viding a  "chain  of  command,"  or  flow  of  authority.  The  duties  of  each 
executive  are  assig^ned  so  as  to  insure  undivided  authority  and  individual 
responsibility  within  his  own  department.  It  is  a  cardinal  principle  of  the 
management  of  this  plant,  that  business  must  be  conducted  smoothly  and 
harmoniously.  There  must  be  no  waste  of  effort  on  account  of  friction. 
The  efforts  of  all  must  be  directed  effectively  toward  securing  efficiency  in 
the  work  of  the  plant  as  a  whole.  This  is  a  union  of  individuals  for  a 
common    purpose. 

2.  Observation  of  the  following  simple  rules  will  secure  the  above 
mentioned    result: 

(a)  Deal  frankly  and  courteously  with  your  associates.  When  oppor- 
tunity offers,  help  the  other  fellow  to  get  results  in  his  work. 

(b)  Differences  of  opinion  and  clashes  in  authority  should  be  referred 
at  once  to  your  immediate  superior  for  decision.  When  such  a  decision 
is  rendered,  it  should  be  adhered  to  without  further  discussion.  In  special 
cases   appeal   to  higher   authority  may  be   resorted  to  thru  your  immediate 

superior.  ,        .        ^  it  j 

(c)  Carry  out  the  instructions  of  your  chief  promptly,  cheerfully,  and 
as  efficiently  as  it  is  in  you  to  do. 


io6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

3.     It  will  be  noted  from  what  follows: 

(a)  That  the  work  to  be  done  is  distributed  among  the  following 
main  offices.  (Then  follows  a  list  of  such  offices,  which  is  not  pertinent  to 
this   discussion.) 

(b)  That  the  work  of  each  office  is  distributed  among  several  depart- 
ments or  their  equivalent;  and  these  departments  are  separated  further 
into  sections  and  groups. 

(c)  That  a  chain  of  command  for  effectively  controlling  the  operation 
of  the  plant  is  established  thru  the  fact  that  all  principal  orders  and  in- 
structions emanate  from  the  manager.  These  orders  and  instructions  are 
then  transmitted,  interpreted  and  carried  out  by  his  assistants  (the  depart- 
ment heads,  section  chiefs,  etc.)  in  accordance  with  the  outline  of  duties 
that   follows. 

As  stated  above,  this  serves  as  an  introduction  to  the  de- 
tailed written  organization;  and  written  assignments  of  work  are 
always   desirable   when    practicable. 

It  is  well  to  issue  such  an  outline  in  a  convenient  loose  leaf 
binder.  It  can  then  be  supplemented  by  a  series  of  written  in- 
struction notices,  to  be  filed  therein  as  they  are  issued  from 
time  to  time.  Such  instruction  notices  can  be  used  for  many 
purposes,  not  the  least  important  of  which  is  to  make  available 
in  readily  accessible  form,  all  the  information  about  the  com- 
pany's system  and  methods  that  a  new  man  just  entering  the 
organization  will  need  to  know. 

The  use  of  committees  is  an  excellent  way  to  bring  men 
together  and  thus  to  secure  co-ordination  and  co-operation. 
Committee  meetings  should  be  carefully  prepared  for  before- 
hand, and  strongly  handled,  or  they  are  apt  to  degenerate  into 
mere  arguments  about  trivial  subjects,  and  thus  become  time 
wasters.  There  always  should  be  standing  committees  on  cer- 
tain important  subjects,  preferably  with  definite  meeting  places 
at  specified  time,  within  zvorking  hours.  Everyone  realizes  the 
desirability  of  having  the  men  who  are  going  to  put  into  effect 
a  new  plan  believe  that  it  is  their  own  scheme.  Careful  work 
in  committee  will  secure  this ;  as  men  who  have  themselves 
voted  for  a  new  scheme  are  pretty  certain  to  try  to  make  it  succeed. 

Early  this  year  one  of  the  largest  shipbuilding  concerns  in 
the  country  sent  out  a  committee  to  investigate  employment, 
safety  and  welfare  work  in  some  twenty  companies,  employing 
from  600  to  42,000  men  each.  The  committee  report  is  in- 
teresting, particularly  as  it  probably  will  not  be  published.  It 
states,  among  other  things,  that  the  five  reasons  given  by  these 
companies  for  a  reduction  in  their  labor  turnover  are,  in  the 
order  of  their  importance: 

1  Wages 

2  Fair  treatment 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       107 

3  Promotion 

4  Good   working   conditions 

5  Welfare  work 

This  arrangement  of  headings  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  state- 
ment of  general  experience  in  handling  men.  The  subject  of 
wages  calls  for  little  discussion,  as  it  has  been  written  up  too 
much,  if  anything.  Being  the  basis  of  the  economic  relation- 
ship between  employer  and  employee,  it  is  naturally  the  first 
thing  that  men  consider  in  choosing  a  place  to  work.  I  once 
asked  a  most  successful  manager  (who  had  reduced  his  labor 
cost  40  per  cent  in  five  years)  to  what  he  principally  attrib- 
uted his  success  in  handling  men.  He  replied :  "I  endeavor 
to  pay  them  for  what  they  do.  That  is  all  there  is  to  it,  isn't 
it?" 

Fair  treatment  is  naturally  the  next  thing  to  be  considered 
after  wages,  for  it  implies  so  many  things  of  vital  interest  to 
the  individual,  and  so  deeply  affects  his  peace  of  mind.  The 
report  just  referred  to  contains  a  statement  of  special  interest 
in  this  connection.  A  company  employing  10,000  men  informed 
the  committee  that  the  establishment  of  a  court  of  appeal  for 
their  workmen  cut  down  discharges  by  a  most  unexpected 
amount.  This  bears  out  the  experience  of  many  concerns,  that 
one  of  the  best  aids  to  contentment  is  the  knowledge  that  the 
company  means  to  see  that  its  employees  shall  he  treated 
honestly. 

Nearly  all  men  will  answer  to  fair  treatment. 

I  recall  a  case  where  even  a  misunderstanding  was  turned 
to  secure  co-operation  by  the  way  in  which  the  men  were 
handled.  The  case  occurred  in  a  plant,  and  in  a  shop  in  that 
plant,  where  labor  had  been  restless  for  some  time.  The  plant 
was  one  of  a  chain  of  similar  works.  Several  years  before, 
the  central  office  sent  out  a  new  set  of  standard  forms,  time 
cards  and  the  like,  with  orders  to  put  them  into  use.  In  the 
shop  in  question  the  time  was  ill  chosen,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing about  500  men  declined  to  go  to  work  until  they  knew 
more  about  the  new  "card  system",  as  they  called  it.  The  sup- 
erintendent was  sent  for.  He  came  down  with  a  big  dog  at 
his  heels.  Just  as  he  stepped  up  to  address  the  men,  the  dog 
got  in  his  way.  He  said,  "Down,  Sir!  I'm  master  here."  Then 
he  talked   for  some  minutes,   and  the  men   struck. 

That    experience,    followed    by    various    changes    in    system 


io8  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

work,  was  the  preparation,  if  it  can  be  called  that,  which  pre- 
ceded a  reorganization  some  years  later.  You  will  readily  un- 
derstand that  the  sample  of  bad  management  just  related,  made 
the  managing  of  the  plant,  and  of  that  shop  in  particular,  a 
ticklish  proposition.  Within  a  month  after  the  new  manage- 
ment took  hold,  an  accident  happened.  A  clerk  was  told  to 
make  up  a  new  directory  of  the  men.  He  chose  the  easiest 
way,  and  without  the  management's  knowledge,  sent  the  fore- 
men! a  set  of  forms  for  the  men  to  fill  out,  and  there  were  a 
good  many  personal  questions  on  those  forms.  The  next 
morning  the  shop  superintendent  of  tlie  plant  received  a  let- 
ter from  the  men,  thru  the  foreman,  that  gave  him  something 
to  think  about  all  day.  He  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
to  gain  the  goodwill  and  confidence  of  the  men  by  sending  for 
their  committee  and  telling  them  that  he  was  delighted,  for 
once  in  his  life,  to  find  a  shop  where  the  men  took  an  interest 
in  the  system  work.  He  explained  how  forms  are  needed  in 
a  big  plant  to  control  the  work,  and  how  the  men  could  help 
him  by  making  the  system  work  a  success ;  also  that  he'd  be 
glad  to  tell  them  at  any  time  what  he  was  trying  to  do  in  the 
way  of  such  work  and  why.  Then,  when  they  were  quieted  down, 
he  told  them  how  the  particular  form  that  had  caused  the  dis- 
turbance was  a  scheme  gotten  up  by  a  clerk  to  save  himself 
trouble,  and  they  could  help  out  the  clerk,  or  not,  as  they 
chose.  The  men  held  a  meeting  that  night,  and  sent  the  sup- 
erintendent a  letter  thanking  him  for  his  courtesy,  and  promis- 
ing their  co-operation.  The  men  who  struck  four  years  before 
under  somewhat  similar  circumstances  were  willing  to  meet 
him  more  than  halfway.  They  answered  to  fair  treatment; 
and  barring  accidents,  they  always  will. 

Promotion  for  merit  is  really  a  part  of  fair  treatment  and 
is  the  part  of  common  sense  in  management.  The  best  men 
will  go  where  they  arc  given  a  chance  to  advance  themselves. 

There  is  a  certain  technical  bureau  in  the  Navy  department 
that  can  always  have  the  pick  of  the  civil  service  employees. 
Men  try  to  get  the  vacancies  there.  Why?  Because  they  know 
that  if  they  prove  their  worth  they  will  be  promoted,  or  else 
have  a  chance  to  take  an  advanced  position  in  some  outside 
concern. 

Promotion  from  the  company's  force  to  fill  vacancies, 
rather  than  bringing  in  outsiders,  is  an  accepted  policy  in  more 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       109 

and  more  concerns.  Such  a  policy  requires  that  men  be  in  train- 
ing for  jobs  higher  up.  Sound  organization  calls  for  under- 
studies for  all  positions  of  responsibility  anyway.  Further, 
good  management  has  in  it  an  element  of  teaching  such  men  to 
fit  them  for  their  work.  The  spirit  of  helping  men  to  help 
themselves  is  one  that  should  be  cultivated  thruout  the  plant. 
Encourage  men  to  be  ambitious.     They  are  an   asset. 

Another  good  and  growing  practice  that  we  may  well  con- 
sider at  this  point,  is  that  of  giving  the  man  who  has  failed 
on  one  job,  a  chance  to  make  good  in  some  other  part  of  the 
plant.  It  is  a  fact  that  nearly  every  man  is  good  for  some  par- 
ticular kind  of  work.  Of  course  you  must  except  the  habitual 
drunkard,  the  dishonest,  the  trifler,  and  the  trouble  maker;  but 
even  among  these  there  is  sometimes  a  chance  if  you  can  in- 
terest the  man,  and  develop,  the  pride  of  personal  achievement 
and  the  pleasure  and  interest  of  good  craftsmanship. 

It  is  only  good  business  sense  for  the  management  to  pro- 
vide a  clean  and  comfortable  place  to  work.  So  much  depends 
on  systematic  and  orderly  arrangement  of  the  working  space 
that  there  is  no  excuse  for  not  keeping  a  shop  unencumbered. 
One  of  the  first  things,  if  not  the  first  thing,  to  do  with  a  run 
down  shop,  is  to  clean  it  out.  Tell  the  foreman  to  clear  out 
everything  not  used  in  the  business.  When  he  says  he  has  done 
so,  go  thru  the  shop  yourself  and  have  all  the  unnecessary 
furniture,  signs,  locker  doors,  drawers,  and  shelves  removed. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  just  as  sure  as  a  stow  hole  is  available 
it  will  be  filled,  usually  with  junk.  A  plant  consisting  of  sev- 
eral detached  shops  cleared  $S,ooo  on  such  a  clean-up,  over  and 
above  the  cost  of  putting  the  place  in  order.  The  principal 
gain,  however,  is  thru  the  influence  on  the  personnel. 

We  hear  a  good  deal  nowadays  about  the  importance  of 
the  arrangement  of  machinery,  so  that  there  will  be  a  direct 
flow  of  material  thru  the  shops.  It  is  equally  important  that 
the  machines  and  working  places  be  arranged  with  an  eye  to 
the  convenience  and  comfort  of  the  men.  There  is  no  general 
rule  for  this,  and  there  is  room  for  considerable  thought  in 
working  out  each  case.  A  sensitive  drill  whose  table  is  fed 
up  by  a  foot  treadle,  calls  for  a  stool  for  the  operator.  A  man 
who  is  using  a  file  should  stand  up.  He  will  do  so  naturally 
if  he  is  paid  on  piece  work,  but  will  sit  down  just  as  naturally 
if  paid  by  the  day. 


no  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Environment  plays  a  very  large  part  in  influencing  the 
spirit  and  attitude  of  men,  as  all  of  us  have  found  out  while 
trying  to  work  in  the  old-fashioned,  dark,  stuffy  or  cold  office. 
A  good  general  lighting  system  is  a  splendid  cure  for  a  "blue" 
Monday  morning.  Even  if  it  is  light  enough  to  work  without 
artificial  light  on  a  chilly,  rainy  day,  switch  on  the  light  and 
watch   everyone  cheer   up   and   "get  busier". 

When  it  comes  to  the  question  of  beautifying  factory 
grounds,  we  begin  to  enter  the  domain  of  welfare  work,  which 
I  understand  is  reserved  for  later  discussion.  It  bears  a  cer- 
tain relation  to  the  matter  of  pleasant  working  conditions, 
however;  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  an  example  here  of 
the  influence  of  surroundings.  There  is  a  shipyard  here  in 
the  East  employing  several  thousand  men,  and  strikes  have  not 
been  infrequent.  A  short  time  ago  it  changed  hands.  The 
new  management  began  by  cleaning  up  the  yard,  and  just  in- 
side the  gates  where  the  men  entered,  they  replaced  a  mud  hole 
with  a  beautiful  bed  of  flowers.  Now  there  are  all  sorts  of 
men  employed  in  a  shipbuilding  plant,  on  account  of  the  great 
variety  of  trades.  Many  of  them  are  used  to  specially  severe 
work  with  not  very  high  wages.  It  takes  hard  men  to  work 
out  of  doors  on  steel  in  the  winter.  There  is  an  element  of 
pathos  in  the  fact  that  the  day  this  flower  bed  was  put  in,  the 
men  congregated  about  it  on  their  way  out,  and  cheered. 

Among  the  many  things  that  must  be  considered  in  con- 
nection with  handling  men,  is  one  that  is  unusually  difficult  to 
discuss — probably  because  it  involves  much  that  is  personal 
and  intimate.  I  refer  to  the  personal  relations  of  the  execu- 
tive with  his  workers.  If  you  read  the  lives  of  Grant  and 
Lee,  you  will  be  struck  again  and  again  with  the  fact  that  they 
took  a  deep  and  kindly  interest  in  the  welfare  of  their  men. 
Their  leadership  did  not  depend  only  on  the  respect  that  their 
professional   ability  and   the   power  of  their  rank   demanded. 

Many  of  us  have  been  impressed  by  the  spirit  that  seems 
to  pervade  the  150,000  workers  of  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  service.  The  reason  is  plain  to  see  in  any  recent 
annual  report  of  that  company,  bearing  at  the  end,  the  signa- 
ture of  Theodore  N.  Vail. 

Not  long  ago  Mr.  Schwab  bought  a  large  plant,  and  soon 
afterwards  made  a  personal  inspection  of  the  shops  to  meet 
and   shake   hands   with   the    foremen.     That   alone   showed   that 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       in 

he  understood  handling  men.  The  story  is  told  that  on  this 
trip  he  went  thru  a  shop  whose  foreman  was  a  little  Irish- 
man. The  foreman  was  efficient  and  his  shop  showed  it.  As 
Mr.  Schwab  went  out  he  said,  "This  is  fine,  it's  good!  I  tell 
you,  Mike,  we  Pennsylvania   Dutch  are  all  right,  aren't  we? 

It  is  not  given  to  every  executive  to  have  that  personal  mag- 
netism that  borders  on  genius  in  handling  men;  but  certainly 
everyone  can  have  the  friendship  and  respect  of  his  men,  if 
he  studies  them  and  their  interests  with  real  and  genuine  sin- 
cerity. When  you  have  a  new  scheme  to  put  into  effect,  con- 
sider it  from  the  workman's  standpoint.  He  may  be  part  of  a 
machine  in  one  sense,  but  he  nevertheless  is  a  man,  with  all 
the  perfectly  natural  limitations  and  variable  feelings  of  a  hu- 
man being.  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  en- 
tire field  of  management  that  will  yield  so  large  a  return,  both 
in  actual  accomplishment  and  in  personal  satisfaction,  as  the 
study  of  the   men  themselves. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  MANAGER 

A  NEW  PROFESSION  IN  AMERICAN 
INDUSTRY ' 

Within  a  little  more  than  half  a  dozen  years  a  new  move- 
ment and  a  new  profession  have  been  definitely  recognised  in 
the  management  of  America's  industries.  The  movement  has 
come  to  be  generally  known  as  the  employment  management 
movement;  the  profession  as  that  of  the  employment  or  per- 
sonnel manager. 

The  principles  and  the  technique  underlying  this  work  are 
not  new.  What  is  new  is  the  emphasis  and  the  recognition  of 
what  has  always  been  accepted  as  desirable  in  the  building  up 
and  the  supervision  of  a  working  force,  and  the  establishment 
by  the  leading  universities  of  courses  for  training  men  and 
women  to  do  this  work  effectively. 

The  value  of  this  work  is  signalised  by  the  setting  up  in 
the  leading  industries  of  special  employment  and  personnel 
departments,  by  the  interest  manifested  in  trade  union  circles. 
Secretary  Wilson,  the  Labour  member  of  President  Wilson's 
Cabinet,  having  been  the  guest  of  honour  at  the  last  annual 
convention  of  employment  managers,  held  in  Rochester,  New 
York,  and  attended  by  nine  hundred  men  and  women,  and  by 
the  National  Government's  promotion  of  this  work  as  a  war 
measure  intended  to  help  organize  the  war  industries  on  the 
most  efficient  production  basis  possible.  The  Ordnance  branch 
of  the  War  Department  itself  required  the  appointment  and 
the  training  of  six  hundred  emploj'ment  managers  for  its 
factories. 

Filling  a  Job 

A  few  simple  and  universally  accepted  ideas  underlie  the 
work  of  employment  management.  The  hiring  of  workers  is 
an  important  function,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  trained 

1  By  Meyer  Bloomfield,  Consultant  on  Problems  of  Industrial  Relations. 
London  Daily  News.     January  i6,   1919. 


114  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

men  and  women,  who  arc  given  a  responsible  place  in  the 
scheme  of  management.  Such  work  and  all  that  it  implies 
calls  for  brains  and  insight.  It  is  not  work  for  a  weak  or  un- 
trained subordinate.  Employment  is,  at  bottom,  a  venture  in 
co-operation.  Irresponsible  hiring  and  discharge  in  the  hands 
of  many  little  executives  is  a  costly  and  wasteful  thing,  viewed 
from  the  standpoint  of  good  management;  and  from  the  side 
of  the  men  it  goes  contrary  to  their  instinct  as  to  how  human 
beings  should  be  dealt  with  in  the  employment  relation. 

The  traditional  way  in  building  up  a  working  force  or  fill- 
ing job  vacancies  is  to  make  a  vague  and  wholesale  demand 
for  labour,  and  then  pick  at  random  from  the  crowds  at  the 
gate.  The  men,  once  chosen,  are  then  placed  on  probation, 
w'ith  a  certain  amount  of  random  supervision.  If  by  chance 
they  make  good  they  remain;  if,  for  reasons  often  unknown 
to  them,  they  do  not,  out  they  go  without  recompence  or  ex- 
planation. All  sorts  of  little  bosses  are  kings  in  their  own 
domain,  with  unchecked  authority  over  that  most  vital  in- 
terest in  a  worker's  life — his  livelihood.  Taken  at  its  lowest, 
this  is  bad  business,  demonstrated  by  the  wasteful  coming  and 
going  of  men  in  and  out  of  the  jobs.  There  can  be  no  real 
organization  or  spirit  on  a  foundation  of  quicksands. 

Managers  in   Conference 

Eight  years  ago  in  the  city  of  Boston  50  men  were  invited 
to  come  together  and  discuss  the  problems  of  building  up  a 
working  force.  These  men  were  in  charge  of  the  hiring  of 
employees  in  Boston's  leading  industries.  It  was  probably  the 
first  time  that  these  men,  or  men  representing  such  work  as 
they  were  doing,  had  ever  been  called  together  to  consider 
the  common  problems  of  their  work.  And  the  problems,  as 
it  soon  appeared,  were  many.  The  importance  of  the  work 
they  were  engaged  in  had  never  been  properly  realised,  not 
even  by  themselves.  Literally,  they  were  responsible  for 
pumping  the  life-blood  into  their  respective  establishments,  for 
this  is  what  hiring  men  means,  but  their  place  in  manage- 
ment was  obscure. 

As  the  significance  of  this  work  unfolded  the  Boston  Em- 
ployment Managers'  Association  grew  in  number  until  it 
reached  a  membership  of  two  hundred.     Employers,  managers. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       115 

emplojanent  men,  educators  and  social  workers  came  from 
various  parts  of  the  country  to  listen  to  the  discussions.  The 
idea  of  right  employment  methods  developed,  and  presently 
other  cities  followed  the  example  of  Boston  in  starting  as- 
sociations of  employment  managers,  notably  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Rochester,  Chicago,  Detroit,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati  and 
San  Francisco.  Soon  a  national  association  was  founded,  and 
its  annual  meetings  attract  large  numbers.  The  papers  which 
are  read  show  most  interesting  experiments  under  way,  and 
form  notable  contributions  to  the  literature  of  modern  indus- 
trial management. 

Right  Men  for  the  Right  Place 

Early  in  the  career  of  the  Boston  association  the  need  for 
providing  special  training  of  those  who  were  to  conduct  em- 
ployment work  in  commercial  and  industrial  plants  became  ap- 
parent. To  meet  this  need  Dartmouth  College,  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  later  Harvard  University,  the  University 
of  Rochester,  Columbia  University  and  other  institutions 
started  through  their  schools  of  business  special  employment 
management  courses.  Men  and  women  from  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  came,  some  were  sent  by  their  employers,  others, 
alive  to  the  birth  of  a  new  vocation  with  a  large  field  for  con- 
structive  service   in    industry,   sought   preparation. 

Meanwhile  leading  industries  in  the  country  signified  their 
interest  by  organizing  central  employment  departments  within 
their  plant,  and  abolishing  haphazard  methods  of  employing 
and  dismissing  men.  The  International  Harvester  Company, 
for  example,  brought  together  six  hundred  foremen,  and  an- 
nounced that  in  future  they  would  have  to  plan  their  requisi- 
tions for  help  on  a  six  months'  basis,  carefully  studied  as  to 
detail  of  the  actual  needs  and  qualifications  of  the  workers 
required ;  that  all  interviews  would  be  conducted  by  the  staff 
of  the  central  employment  office,  which  could  give  the  neces- 
sary time  and  care  to  the  work,  something  a  busy  foreman 
could  not ;  and  that  all  dismissals  would  be  investigated  and 
passed  upon  by  the  same  central  office.  Other  companies  re- 
organized their  employment  system,  if  they  had  any,  appointed 
the  best  man  or  woman  that  could  be  found  for  the  purpose, 
and    furnished    requisite    authority    to    the    new     appointee    for 


ii6  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

keeping  in  close  touch  with  all  employees,  watching  their  prog- 
ress, making  such  transfers  as  were  desirable  as  between 
departments,    and   ensuring   a   fair    scheme    of   promotion. 

For  the  first  time  many  large  establishments  began  to  keep 
adequate  records  of  their  employees.  Instead  of  registering 
"hands,"  they  were  registering  human  beings  with  certain  am- 
bitions, skill,  and  experience,  often  far  above  that  for  which 
they  were  specially  engaged.  It  was  the  business  of  the  em- 
ployment department  to  know  enough  about  the  workers  in  the 
plant  to  give  them  the  first  call  on  any  new  or  superior  em- 
ployment which  opened  up,  and  for  which  they  were  fitted. 
One  of  the  first  and  most  telling  effects  in  the  starting  of  these 
central  employment  departments  was  a  sudden  drop  in  the 
number  of  leavings  and  discharges.  Employees  had  a  place  to 
go  with  their  grievances  or  suggestions,  an  office  where  they 
were  certain  that  what  they  had  to  say  would  be  intelligently 
understood.  And  they  did  go  in  large  numbers,  and  found  a 
real  desire  and  power  to  co-operate  with  them  in  the  problem 
of  making  the  best  adjustment  that  could  be  made  of  their 
skill  and  ambition  to  the  organisation. 

Labour  Recruiting 

The  question  may  be  asked  what  effect  such  an  employment 
department  has  on  other  industrial  arrangements,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, shop  committees,  collective  bargaining,  yard  delegates, 
shop  stewards,  and  the  like.  The  reply  is  that  none  of  these 
is  affected,  except  as  improved  management  in  the  handling  of 
the  labour  force  is  always  helpful.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  an  enlightened  system  of  recruiting  labour,  careful  and 
fair  selection  of  workers,  systematic  provision  for  their  ad- 
vancement, encouragement  in  their  progress,  and  protection 
against  abuse  of  authority,  is  a  distinct  contribution  to  sound 
relations.  This  is  true,  and  holds,  whether  the  employer  is  a 
State  or  a  private  individual.  The  chief  point  to  remember  is 
that  in  employment  management  industry  takes  a  constructive 
attitude.  It  seeks  not  merely  to  minimize  friction  spots ;  it  is 
mainly  interested  in  opening  up  clogged  channels,  and  widen- 
ing the  scope  of  opportunity  during  employment. 

When  the  United  States  entered  the  war  the  Government 
took  over  the  shipyards  and  started  a  large  number  of  muni- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       117 

tion  works.  Every  department  head  supported  the  idea  of  a 
well-conducted  employment  department  in  connection  with  the 
war  work.  One  of  the  first  steps  was  to  invite  a  number  of 
universities  to  give  short,  intensive  courses  in  order  to  equip 
those  who  were  to  be  in  charge  of  manning  the  factories  and 
other  places  with  the  workers  required.  All  the  shipyards,  for 
instance,  were  invited  to  send  one  or  more  of  their  staff  to  a 
six  weeks'  course  in  the  nearest  training  centre.  The  Govern- 
ment paid  all  expenses.  The  Department  of  Labour  sent  a 
number  of  its  agents  to  these  courses,  as  an  essential  part  of 
the  training  consisted  in  laying  down  plans  for  close  co-opera- 
tion between  the  labour  exchanges  and  the  various  establish- 
ments. Nothing  helped  so  much  to  organize  the  munitions 
personnel  in  record  time  as  the  intelligent  work  of  the  men 
and  women  who  had  been  through  the  employment  manage- 
ment courses.  Instructed  as  they  were,  among  other  things, 
as  to  the  best  methods  of  canvassing  for  employees,  the  start- 
ing up  of  new  shops  and  shipyards  was  effected  with  the  least 
possible  disturbance  to  the  labour  market  or  waste  of  time  and 
energy  on  the  part  of  the  prospective  employee. 

Scientific  Industry 

One  shipyard  which  had  4,000  workers  on  its  pay  roll  had 
to  enlarge,  because  of  a  new  contract  for  sixty  destroyers,  to 
15,000  men.  Instead  of  making  a  wild  scramble  for  men, 
flooding  the  country  with  .  advertisements  and  with  scouts, 
something,  of  course,  which  every  other  concern  could  dupli- 
cate, this  particular  yard  began  by  enlarging  its  employment 
department.  Men  were  sent  to  take  the  course  in  employment 
management,  and  when  they  had  finished  they  were  placed,  by 
arrangement  with  the  Federal  Department  of  Labour,  in  the 
offices  of  the  various  exchanges  or  public  employment  bureaus. 
All  advertisements  were  printed  in  the  name  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  not  that  of  the  employer.  Work  conditions,  wages, 
hours,  and  the  like  were  carefully  specified.  A  housing  staff 
was  on  duty  to  help  locate  the  new  workers  and  their  families. 
Transportation  facilities  were  looked  after.  Surveys  were 
made  of  rentals,  cost  of  living,  and  schooling  in  the  vicinity 
of  this  shipyard  and  the  oncoming  workers  were  assisted  by 
the  employment   staff  to   settle   down  without  those   cares  that 


Ii8  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

touch  the  very  souls  of  the  men.  As  a  result  of  this  care  and 
intelligence  the  shipyard  in  question  secured  its  15,000  men 
without  a  ripple  in  the  labour  market. 

Obviously  work  such  as  employment  management  em- 
braces is  a  benefit  to  the  men  and  to  industry  as  a  whole.  Its 
effect  on  foremen  and  other  minor  officials  in  a  works  has 
been  wholesome.  For  the  first  time  a  new  measure  of  the 
foreman's  usefulness,  other  than  his  ability  to  get  a  certain 
output,  has  been  applied  in  a  large  way.  This  measure  is  his 
ability  to  hold  his  men  and  to  appeal  to  their  sense  of  self-re- 
spect. The  employment  manager  keeps  close  watch  on  these 
things. 

Comparisons  are  made  in  black  and  white.  The  records 
show  just  what  is  going  on.  One  result  has  been  an  awaken- 
ing of  interest  in  the  human  assets  represented  by  even  the 
humblest  worker. 

There  is  still  much  to  be  done,  and  much  to  be  learned. 
This  new  profession  is  still  in  the  making.  Its  technique  is 
far  from  complete.  But  it  is  a  long  step  forward  to  accept  as 
a  definite  motive  in  management  the  idea  that  the  directing 
of  a  working  force  needs  brains  and  vision — that  those  who 
are  given  this  great  responsibility  must  be  equal  to  its  de- 
mands on  character   and   industrial   insight. 

EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT' 

The  New  Labor  Problem 

A  great  deal  of  thought  is  now  being  given,  by  American 
business  men,  to  the  subject  of  employment  management.  At 
one  time  the  labor  problem  seemed  to  be  solely  a  matter  of  the 
policies  of  organized  labor  and  the  methods  of  industrial  war- 
fare. It  now  shows  itself  to  be  chiefly  a  question  of  the  intel- 
ligent handling  of  the  human  relations  which  result  from  the 
normal  course  of  business,  day  by  day.  It  has  to  do  with  a  study 
of  the  requirements  of  each  occupation,  the  careful  selection  of 
men  for  their  work,  their  adequate  training,  the  fixing  of  just 
wages,  the  maintenance  of  proper  working  conditions,  and  the 

1  By  Edward  D.  Jones,  Professor  of  Industry  and  Commerce,  Uni- 
versitv  of  Michigan.  Opportunity  Monograph.  Vocational  Rehabilitation 
Series  No.  12.  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education.  Washington. 
December,    1918. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       119 

protection  of  man  against  undue  fatigue,  accidents,  disease,  and 
the  demoralizing  influences  of  a  narrow  and  inadequate  life,  and 
the  opening  of  a  channel  through  which  employees  may  reach 
the  ear  of  the  management  for  the  expression  of  any  dissatisfac- 
tion with  its  labor  policies. 


A  Departure  in  Business  Practice 

Hitherto,  executive  control  in  business  has  been  exercised 
through  three  main  divisions  of  administration : 

(i)     Finance — in  charge  of  a  treasurer  or  president. 

(2)  Alanufacturing — in  charge  of  a  general  manager  or  gen- 
eral superintendent. 

(3)  Sales — in  charge  of  a  sales  manager. 

To  these  general  divisions  industrial  enterprise  is  now  adding 
a  fourth,  i.  e.,  employment  management  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
called,  supervision  of  personnel.  In  the  employment  department 
of  a  business  are  gathered  all  those  activities  which  have  to  do 
with  the  human  relations — hiring,  education,  promotion,  dis- 
cipline, discharge,  wage  setting,  pensions,  sick  benefits,  housing, 
etc.  To  bring  all  these  matters  together  under  one  head,  and 
provide  each  subsection  with  specialists,  is  a  great  step  toward 
scientific  industrialism. 

Industrial  experience  has  proved  the  advantage  of  a  separate 
department  equipped  to  deal  with  questions  of  personnel  by 
themselves.  The  prompt  discovery  and  analysis  of  unfavorable 
working  conditions  can  be  made  only  by  a  central  bureau.  Most 
of  the  approved  methods  of  dealing  equitably  with  the  working 
force  have  been  devised  or  brought  to  notice  by  the  new  type  of 
industrial  specialist. 

Where  employment  departments  have  been  established  under 
competent  executives,  the  waste  of  turnover  has  been  uniformly 
reduced,  and  employees  have  been  rendered  more  efificient 
through  proper  selection,  assignment,  training,  and  supervision. 
In  no  case  of  which  there  is  record  has  an  establishment  which 
once  tested  the  benefits  of  employment  work  of  this  character 
ever  returned  to  the  old  methods  of  permitting  employment 
functions  to  be  handled  by  a  variety  of  minor  executives. 


120  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


Functions  of  the  Employment  Manager 

The  primary  functions  of  an  employment  manager  are  to 
hire  shop  employees  (and  often  office  employees  also),  to  super- 
intend transfers  and  discharges,  to  assist  in  determining  rates  of 
pay,  to  study  the  causes  of  labor  turnover  and  absenteeism  and 
strive  to  reduce  them,  to  adjust  grievances,  and  to  recommend 
changes  in  working  conditions  which  will  eliminate  fatigue  and 
accidents,  or  will  improve  the  health  and  spirit  of  the  force. 

In  performing  these  functions  the  employment  manager  will 
need  to  organize  a  staff  and  provide  himself  with  proper  office 
aids.  He  will  require  a  set  of  labor  records,  which  will  reveal 
for  each  department  of  the  business  the  degree  of  efficiency 
being  attained  in  the  utilization  of  labor.  He  will  analyze  the 
sources  of  labor  supply  and  make  studies  upon  which  job  spec- 
ifications, which  set  forth  the  qualifications  required  for  each 
task,  can  be  based.  He  will  install  such  methods  of  physical  and 
mental  examination  as  will  safeguard  the  force  against  the 
hazards  of  the  occupation  and  the  hazard  of  coemployment  with 
men  unfitted  for  their  work. 

To  the  employment  manager  often  falls  the  function  of 
supervising  the  training  of  employees  by  apprenticeship,  in  vesti- 
bule or  shop  schools,  or  by  Americanization  programs. 

The  employment  manager  should  be  the  chief  agenc}^  of  his 
corporation  in  forming  and  executing  the  policies  which  may  be 
adopted  for  keeping  the  worker  up  to  the  standard.  These 
efforts  may  take  any  one  of  a  variety  of  forms.  In  one  case  a 
restaurant  may  be  opened;  in  another  housing  may  be  provided. 
In  one  plant  a  mutual  benefit  organization  may  be  a  success ; 
elsewhere  local  transportation  may  be  a  serious  problem,  or  a 
recreational  or  thrift  campaign  may  occupy  the  most  attention. 
Each  industrial  situation  requires  particular  study.  The  pre- 
scription of  economic  and  social  remedies  should  rest  as  strictly 
upon  diagnosis  as  does  prescription  in  medical  practice.  This 
means  that  the  employment  manager  should  know  how  to  make 
industrial  and  labor  surveys. 

Finally,  in  connection  with  the  government  of  the  shop,  the 
employment  manager  will  have  a  hand  in  drawing  up  shop  rules, 
and  will,  by  means  of  suggestion  systems  and  control  sheets, 
deduce  the  significance  of  complaints    and    the  causes  of  dis- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       121 

charge.  He  will  be  in  contact  with  shop  committees,  should 
such  be  formed.  And  he  will  be  a  harmonizer  and  mutual  inter- 
preter in  all  collective  bargaining  negotiations  with  organizations 
of  employees,  striving  ever  sincerely  to  reach  a  fair  and  per- 
manent basis  for  loyal  cooperation. 

It  will  be  observed  that  most  of  these  functions  are  not  new 
in  industry.  They  are  now  being  gathered  together  under  one 
authority  so  that  they  may  be  handled  in  a  more  expert  manner, 
that  they  may  be  harmonized  into  a  consistent  policy,  and  may 
be  made  the  definite  responsibility  of  competent  officers. 

In  such  a  summary  of  possible  activities  as  the  foregoing,  the 
range  of  duties  indicated  is  wider  than  would  be  actually  under- 
taken in  most  individual  cases.  Nevertheless,  the  employment 
manager  has  need  of  a  firm  grasp  on  the  technique  of  his  art, 
and  an  acquaintance  with  the  successful  policies  of  other  em- 
ployers. 

He  is  called  upon  to  practice  human  engineering,  and  he  has 
a  leading  part  in  transforming  the  relation  of  employer  and  em- 
ployee from  a  mere  "cash  nexus"  into  a  satisfying  human  rela- 
tionship. Before  the  employment  manager  there  opens  one  of 
the  finest  opportunities  American  business  Hfe  has  to  offer.  In 
proper  ratio  to  these  opportunities  should  be  the  dominating  pur- 
pose and  the  training  of  the  candidate. 

The  Employment  Manager  and  the  General  Officers 

The  employment  officer  comes  into  a  business  organization 
as  a  staff  man,  to  relieve  the  general  executives.  The  general 
executive  is  a  correlator.  He  is  a  balancer  of  claim  against 
claim.  His  business  is  to  define  the  general  aims  and  to  har- 
monize all  lesser  activities  with  them.  To  do  this  work  well,  he 
must  be  supplemented  by  specialists  who  do  not  have  a  wide 
range  of  functions,  and  so  can  concentrate  upon  some  special 
phase  and,  upon  demand,  can  furnish  him  with  detailed  knowl- 
edge and  standardized  special  agencies. 

The  line  executive  in  war  determines  where  a  battery  shall  go 
and  what  it  shall  do,  but  he  depends  upon  staff  men  to  breed  a 
reliable  artillery  horse,  to  design  convenient  gun  carriages,  and 
to  prepare  service  tables  for  sighting  guns.  In  industry,  the 
function  of  staff  departments  is  already  understood  with  refer- 
ence to  mechanical  equipments.  The  general  executive  decides 
to  construct  a  factory  or  a  warehouse;  but  he  depends  upon  an 


122  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

architect  to  design  a  building  which  will  resist  the  probable 
stresses.  He  desires  a  product;  but  he  organizes  a  designing  de- 
partment and  an  inspection  department  to  control  the  dimensions 
of  parts.  He  would  not  pretend  to  a  mastery  of  all  the  sciences 
involved.  The  analogy  between  the  function  of  the  purchasing 
agent  in  a  modern  organization  and  that  of  the  employment 
manager  is  close.  Formerly,  factory  foremen  thought  they  knew 
best  how  to  purchase  raw  materials.  The  development  of  the 
purchasing  agent  proved  the  fallacy  of  this,  since  his  testing 
laboratory  and  specialized  knowledge  made  the  results  far 
superior  to  those  obtained  by  the  individual  foremen.  This  prin- 
ciple of  staff  service  is  now  being  carried  over  into  the  field  of 
human  administration.  General  executives  demand  well-chosen 
men,  men  who  are  physically  examined  and  pronounced  safe  for 
the  work  they  are  to  do,  men  who  are  properly  paid,  and  men 
who  are  so  handled  that  they  become  permanent,  contented,  and 
loyal  cooperators  in  the  general  plans  of  the  enterprise.  Of  all 
the  standardized  agencies  which  a  service  department  can  put  at 
the  disposal  of  a  general  executive,  the  supreme  one  is  a  first- 
class  man. 

When  it  is  recalled  that  the  general  superintendent  of  a  mod- 
ern factory  is  responsible  for  general  supervision  of  the  pur- 
chase, repair,  and  use  of  equipment;  for  the  purchase,  testing, 
storage,  and  accounting  of  materials ;  for  shop  schedules,  prom- 
ises of  delivery,  and  measurement  of  output;  for  cost  estimates, 
inspection  of  product,  tool  accounting,  and  all  production  orders, 
it  can  readily  be  seen  that  he  has  little  time  or  energy  to  con- 
sider the  interests  of  the  workers  in  other  than  a  very  general 
way.  There  is  some  excuse  for  his  looking  upon  men  as  merely 
the  tools  of  production.  With  such  an  administrative  blockade 
already  existing,  even  in  small  businesses,  there  has  intervened 
in  recent  decades  the  enormous  growth  of  American  corpora- 
tions. This  growth  has  so  overwhelmed  executives  with  func- 
tions, and  so  regimented  each  class  in  industry  by  itself,  that 
officers  and  wage  earners  have  been  swept  apart,  and  the  friendly 
elbow-touch  of  the  earlier  day  of  small  shops  entirely  destroyed. 
The  effort  is  now  being  made  to  build  a  bridge  between  employer 
and  employed — the  chief  span  in  this  bridge  is  the  employment 
department. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       123 


The  Employment  Manager  and  the  Foreman 

From  the  shoulders  of  the  overloaded  superintendent  there 
have  slipped  down  upon  the  foreman  of  the  shops  a  mass  of 
heterogenous  functions.  In  establishments  where  the  modern 
plan  of  functionalizing  the  foreman  is  unknown,  each  foreman 
is  for  his  own  shop  a  Jack-of-all-trades,  endeavoring  to  deal 
directly  with  the  details  of  a  great  variety  of  duties.  The  in- 
efficiency of  such  methods  has  been  amply  revealed  by  the  an- 
alyses of  the  exponents  of  scientific  management. 

The  remedy  is  specialization.  This  means  that  groups  of 
related  duties  are  put  in  the  charge  of  special  foremen  or  service 
departments,  such  as  the  stock  clerk,  the  engineer  in  charge  of 
repairs,  the  planning  room,  and  the  tool  room.  From  the  fore- 
man's point  of  view  the  employment  manager  is  such  another 
functionalized  foreman. 

In  this  way  the  general  shop  foreman  is  relieved  of  hiring 
friends  of  employees  in  his  own  department  who  importune  him 
for  selected  jobs  merely  on  the  basis  of  friendship  and  not  fit- 
ness. He  is  no  longer  a  "bouncer."  He  no  longer  can  sell  jobs, 
or  hold  his  pets  in  soft  assignments.  He  has  not  the  easy  device 
of  covering  his  own  incompetence  by  firing  a  man.  He  can  ask 
for  the  transfer  of  unsatisfactory  employees,  but  if  enough  of 
these  transfers  show  that  discarded  persons  are  able  to  make 
good  in  another  shop  where  the  formanizing  is  different,  he 
prepares  a  prima  facie  case  against  himself.  The  foreman  gets 
a  more  even  and  dependable  run  of  workmen  from  the  employ- 
ment department  than  he  can  provide  for  himself.  And  he  is 
freed  from  many  distractions  to  become  an  expert  in  shop  man- 
ufacturing processes.  The  employment  manager  must  find  a 
way  to  secure  the  enthusiastic  cooperation  of  the  foremen  with 
whom  he  works,  and  to  enlist  their  sympathy  with  the  policies  of 
the  management,  and  of  his  own  department,  as  if  those  policies 
were  their  own. 

A  Permanent  Demand 

We  have  spoken  of  the  underlying  forces  which  are  creating 
a  demand  for  specialists  to  deal  with  the  human  factor  in  in- 
dustry. It  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  an  industrial  reform 
which  is  more  clearly  the  converging  point  of  a  number  of  pro- 


124  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

gressive  movements.  Employment  management  is  a  result  of 
the  evolution  of  cost  accounting,  of  the  idea  of  supplementing 
line  executives  by  competent  staff  departments,  and  of  the  move- 
ment to  specialize  the  work  of  foremen.  It  is  an  opportunity  to 
apply  vocational  guidance  and  industrial  training.  It  provides 
the  expert  required  for  setting  wages  by  investigation  rather 
than  by  dispute.  It  gives  the  needed  supervisory  agency  for 
safety  first,  industrial  hygiene,  and  medical  aid.  And  it  pro- 
vides an  officer  able  to  deal  intelligently  with  shop  committees 
and  collective  bargaining. 

The  personnel  officer,  as  an  accountant,  applies  the  methods 
of  cost  analysis  to  the  factors  which  influence  labor  efficiency. 
As  a  hiring  officer  he  has  an  opportunity  to  make  vocational 
guidance  more  definite  than  it  has  yet  been,  because  he  can  sup- 
plement the  analysis  of  the  individual  with  a  parallel  analysis  of 
jobs.  He  has  a  powerful  motive  for  competence  in  industrial 
training  work,  for  he  graduates  his  pupils  in  rather  than  out. 
His  students  benefit  from  the  psychology  of  doing  real  work  for 
pay  in  a  real  shop. 

The  employment  manager  is  related  to  recent  movements  in 
psychology.  He  has  an  opportunity  to  apply  appropriate  per- 
formance tests  and  general  inteUigence  tests,  for  the  purpose  of 
sorting  out  those  persons  who,  although  adult  in  physical  devel- 
opment, have  still  the  minds  of  children.  These  classes  he 
identifies,  not  to  reject  from  employment  but  to  place  at  appro- 
priate work;  not  to  browbeat  and  terrorize,  but  to  protect  and 
guide  by  patient  and  educative  foremanizing  to  insure  their  be- 
coming happy  and  permanent  members  of  the  productive  community. 

The  evolution  of  wage  systems  demands  a  specialist.  The 
ideal  form  of  reward  is  that  of  the  man  who  is  in  business  for 
himself,  whose  remuneration  rises  or  falls  according  to  his 
talent  and  effort.  In  the  complexity  of  the  modern  corporation 
it  is  difficult  to  devise  such  a  wage.  In  general,  it  may  be  said 
that  to  take  a  step  toward  greater  fairness  in  wage  setting,  it  is 
necessary  to  achieve  greater  definiteness  in  measuring  the  basic 
factors  involved  in  wages.  Such  are  the  worker's  talent,  the 
np.ture  of  the  task,  the  character  of  the  working  conditions;  the 
chances  of  permanency  and  promotion,  and  the  local  cost  of 
living.  There  is  need  of  some  agency  to  supervise  the  prolonged 
process  by  which  each  craft  or  skill  in  an  establishment  is  placed 
at  its  proper  point  in  the  wage  scale,  with  reference  to  the  others. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       125 

"Safety  first"  has  exerted  a  great  influence  toward  personal 
supervision.  Workmen's  compensation  laws  have  enforced  re- 
sponsibility upon  employers.  Students  of  accidents  mairrtain 
that  a  greater  number  of  disabilities  result  from  the  carelessness 
or  ignorance  of  the  working  force  than  from  faults  of  equip- 
ment and  processes.  This  puts  the  matter  as  much  in  the 
domain  of  the  personnel  officer  as  of  the  engineer. 

A  great  advance  has  been  made  in  medical  science  in  recent 
decades.  This  advance  has  laid  bare  the  intimate  relation  be- 
tween good  water,  ventilation,  digestible  food,  a  reasonable  work 
schedule,  and  home  conditions,  on  the  one  side,  and  accident 
rates,  fatigue,  absenteeism,  antagonism  of  mind,  and  strikes,  on 
the  other.  The  interlacing  of  these  factors  accounts  for  the 
profitableness  of  the  health  work  which  has  been  undertaken  by 
progressive  employers. 

Employment  supervision  represents  a  movement  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  democratic  shop,  in  which  a  voice  is  given  to  labor  in 
determining  working  conditions.  It  may  be  said  to  be  a  method 
of  applying  to  the  relations  of  employer  and  employed  those  con- 
ceptions of  "Truth"  and  "Service"  which  have  revolutionized 
salesmanship  and  advertising.  As  the  customer  is  "sold"  a 
finished  product — that  is  to  say,  is  convinced  and  satisfied  by 
square  and  generous  dealing — so  the  workman  is  to  be  "sold" 
his  job.  The  latter  must  be  satisfied  as  to  the  task,  the  work- 
ing conditions,  the  wages,  the  foremanizing,  and  the  general 
policies,  before  he  becomes  a  genuine  employee. 

All  of  these  movements,  which  have  so  rapidly  shaped  the 
new  art  of  employment  management,  are  functions  of  a  rising 
level  of  intelligence,  of  an  increasing  power  to  produce  wealth, 
and  of  growing  interest  in  ideals  of  social  welfare,  as  con- 
trasted with  ideals  of  personal  luxury  or  arbitrary  power.  We 
may  look  upon  them,  therefore,  as  enduring  forces  and  destined 
to  work  a  progressive  change  in  business  management.  Upon 
them  the  future  of  employment  management  rests.  That  future 
is  secure. 

Necessary  Qualifications 

The  employment  manager,  who  measures  up  to  the  new 
standards  now  being  set,  is  a  first-class  executive,  standing  on  a 
parity  with  the  sales  manager  or  the  production  engineer.  He 
has  the  more  need  of  talent  because  of  the  newness  of  his  posi- 


126  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

tion ;  a  circumstance  which  emphasizes  flexibility  of  ideas,  the 
ability  to  conduct  investigations,  the  courage  to  be  a  pioneer,  and 
the  power  of  commanding  the  confidence  of  others  in  his 
pioneering.  Again,  his  position  is  difficult,  because  he  stands 
between  parties  which  have  been  traditionally  opposed  to  each 
other,  namely,  capital  and  management  on  the  one  side,  and 
labor  and  craftsmanship  on  the  other.  He  must  always  perform 
the  functions  of  a  mutual  interpreter  and  often  those  of  a  peace- 
maker. 

In  considering  a  proposed  occupation  it  is  wise  to  present  a 
sober  view  of  its  conditions,  so  that  persons  who  lack  a  sufficient 
persistency  and  depth  of  conviction  for  success  may  be  early  dis- 
suaded. Wherever  there  is  authority  there  is  responsibility; 
wherever  there  is  reward  there  is  struggle.  If  the  general  sig- 
nificance of  employment  management  lies  in  its  accord  with  the 
progressive  tendencies  of  the  age,  the  greater  part  of  the  ener- 
gies of  the  individual  emploj-mcnt  manager  is  absorbed  by  the 
practical  problems  of  finding  enough  workmen,  of  supervising 
records,  and  of  hearing  and  adjusting  complaints.  It  may  be 
the  lot  of  an  emploj-mcnt  officer  to  deal  with  a  hard-headed  pro- 
prietor, who  is  habituated  to  take  the  defensive  against  new 
plans.  He  may  encounter  the  open  or  concealed  opposition  of 
foremen  who,  for  the  sake  of  prestige,  cling  to  functions  they 
can  not  properly  perform.  He  may  find  organized  labor  cold 
to  benefits  which  the  unions  have  not  won,  and  which  look 
toward  the  sul)stitution  of  a  vertical  bond,  uniting  employer  and 
employed,  for  the  horizontal  union  of  employees  of  different 
establishments. 

All  of  this  means  that  the  successful  employment  manager 
must  be  a  person  exceptionally  fitted  for  leadership.  He  needs 
good  native  ability,  made  serviceable  by  adequate  general  and 
special  training.  He  should  possess  a  well-balanced  and  abso- 
lutely impartial  judgment.  It  is  a  powerful  aid  if  he  possess 
humanitarian  instincts  and  a  sympathetic  disposition.  These 
must,  however,  be  real  attributes,  and  not  a  mere  pose  or  policy, 
for  no  deception  will  long  blind  those  with  whom  he  is  asso- 
ciated. 

The  person  who  measures  himself  for  this  profession  should 
be  able  to  find  indubitable  testimony  as  to  the  strength  of  his 
own  character,  in  the  quality  and  amount  of  his  achievements, 


\ 

EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       127  ' 

and  in  the  regard  he  has  been  able  to  earn  from  responsible 
persons  with  whom  he  has  been  associated.  He  should  find  in 
himself,  also  the  ability  to  understand  human  nature,  not 
through  the  absurd  practice  of  some  quackery  of  phrenology 
and  physiognomy,  but  by  having  analyzed  his  own  nature,  and 
having  found  therein  the  instincts  and  emotions  which  illuminate 
for  him  the  motives  and  passion  of  others. 

With  these  endowments  the  employment  manager  should 
couple  sufficient  education  to  avoid  embarrassment  in  the  oral  or 
written  use  of  his  mother  tongue.  His  education  should  enable 
him  to  understand  the  use  of  general  principles,  avoiding  the  pit- 
falls into  which  the  so-called  "practical"  man  has  usually  fallen 
when  he  complains  of  "theories."  And  this  education  should 
have  had  a  wide  enough  scope  to  enable  him  to  meet  the  minds 
of  others,  and  cement  friendships,  in  a  world  of  ideas  larger 
than  the  details  of  his  work. 

Finally,  the  employment  manager  is  perfected  for  the  practice 
of  his  art  by  general  industrial  experience  and  (if  the  position 
in  view  be  in  a  manufacturing  establishment)  by  actual  contact 
with  shop  problems.  This  shop  experience  is  useful  to  make  the 
candidate  familiar  with  factory  tools,  machinery,  equipment, 
materials,  and  processes.  It  will  instruct  him,  as  no  form  of  sys- 
tematic training  can  do,  in  the  meaning  of  factory  life,  the  sig- 
nificance of  its  discipline,  the  meaning  of  its  schedule  of  hours 
in  terms  of  fatigue,  and  in  the  attitude  of  the  worker  to  his  job, 
his  boss,  his  fellow  worker,  and  to  life  in  general.  Any  general 
social  experience  which  the  candidate  may  have  had,  which  has 
taught  him  how  to  deal  with  people,  not  as  individuals  only 
but  in  the  various  forms  of  voluntary  organization,  will  have 
value. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  every  candidate  will  be  ideal  in 
all  particulars.  Special  merits  may  offset  deficiencies,  within 
reasonable  limits,  bearing  in  mind  always  that  defects  of  native 
endowment  are  less  remediable  than  those  of  education  and  ex- 
perience. If  the  employment  clerk  and  the  labor  scout  of  the 
past  are  to  give  way  and  personnel  relations  in  industry  be 
placed  upon  a  new  footing  by  an  executive  officer  who  is  able 
to  formulate  adequate  policies  and  bear  large  responsibilities  a 
high  standard  of  ability  must  be  maintained  for  the  new  profes- 
sion. 


128  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

To  summarize  the  matter  of  qualifications  we  give  the  rela- 
tive weights  which  a  number  of  successful  employment  managers 
have  agreed  upon  for  five  principal  factors: 

Per  cent. 

Personality    35 

General    industrial    experience 25 

Executive  experience    20 

Shop     experience     (for     employment     managers     in 

manufacturing   establishments)    15 

Experience  with  organized  social  movements s 

Total 100 

Remuneration 

The  employment  manager's  remuneration  is  salary  and  not 
wages.  This  signifies  that  its  amount  is  fixed  rather  by  an 
estimate  of  the  standard  of  living  of  the  class  of  persons  with 
whom  the  employment  manager  should  associate  on  terms  of 
equality  in  the  business  world  than  by  an  effort  to  measure  his 
exact  contribution  to  the  income  of  the  company.  At  present 
the  salaries  of  employment  managers — the  great  majority  of 
which  probably  fall  between  $2,000  and  $5,000 — are  not  equal 
to  those  commanded  by  sales  managers  and  production  engi- 
neers of  equal  ability.  This  discrepancy  is  due  partly  to  the 
recentness  of  the  function  and  to  its  more  subtle  and  indirect 
relations  to  the  profit-making  process.  It  is  due  further  to  the 
fact  that  the  work  of  the  employment  manager  is  a  form  of 
social  service  which  is  deeply  satisfying  to  many  natures,  and 
which  in  itself  provides  a  reward  able  to  compensate  for  some 
inadequacy  of  salary. 

UNIVERSITY  SCHOOLS  OF  BUSINESS  AND 

THE  TRAINING  OF  EMPLOYMENT 

EXECUTIVES ' 

The  expression,  "University  schools  of  business  and  the 
training  of  emplojmient  executives"  involves  three  elements, 
each  of  which  should  be  clearly  understood  as  a  condition  pre- 
cedent to  fruitful  discussion.  Of  the  concept  "university 
schools  of  business"  we  have  a  common  understanding  and  no 
definition    is    necessary.     The    word    "training"    and    the    words 

1  By  Harlow  S.  Person,  formerly  Director,  Amos  Tuck  School  of  Ad- 
ministration and  Finance.  Dartmouth  College  Bulletin.  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Labor    Statistics.      No.    196.      May,    1916. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       129 

"employment    executives,"    however,    may   not   mean   the     same 
thing  to  all  of  us.     Some  understand  training  with  respect  to 
a  given  objective  to  consist  merely  of  imparting  in  the  class- 
room   information    concerning    that    objective.     By    training    I 
mean    the    whole    complex    of    educational    processes,    those    in 
the   classroom   and   those   outside   the    classroom,   but   more   or 
less   under  the   control    of    educational    authorities,   whose   pur- 
pose is,  in  addition  to  the  imparting  of  information,  the  wise 
selection  of  those  who  shall  be  trained  for  the  specific  purpose; 
the  development  of  natural  temperamental  and  other  personal 
characteristics;    the    development    of    capacity    for    independent 
investigation   and  thinking,   for   forming  sound  judgments,   and 
for    constructive    imagination;    and    the    development    of    a    ca- 
pacity for  prompt  adaptation  to  the  environment  in  which  is  to 
be  performed  the   service   for  which   the  training  is   designed. 
Training   for   the   emplo>Tnent    executive    function    is   therefore 
something  larger  than   the   imparting  of   information  concern- 
ing the  work  of  the  employment  manager.     Likewise  with  re- 
spect   to    the    term    "employment    executive."      There    are    em- 
ployment managers  and  employment  managers.     At  one  end  of 
the  line  we  find  the    subordinate   clerk  who   merely  hires   and 
fires;  at  the  other  end  of  the  line  we  find  the  employment  man- 
ager who  is  coordinate  in  rank  and  authority  with  the  works, 
the   sales,   and  the  financial   managers;   who  is   responsible   for 
all    administrative    and    executive   work   pertaining  to   the   per- 
sonnel;  whose  relations  are  with  workpeople  as  human  beings 
rather   than    as    a    commodity;    who   is      representative    of    the 
workpeople  to  the  management,  and  of  the  management  to  the 
workpeople;   who  is  the  man  of   superior  Insight  into  the  fu- 
ture of  industrial  human  relations,  and  the  leader  and  teacher 
who   raises   both   parties  to   the   industrial    contract   to     higher 
conceptions   of   their   mutual   rights   and   obligations.     It   is   the 
training   of   employment   executives   of   this   latter   type   that    I 
propose  to  discuss. 

The  functions  of  an  executive  position  determine  the  quali- 
fications which  may  be  demanded  of  him  who  is  to  fill  it,  and 
these  qualifications  determine  the  nature  of  the  training  for 
that  position.  Therefore  our  first  inquiry  is  concerning  the 
functions  of  the  highest  t\T)e  of  employment  executive;  our 
second  inquiry  is  concerning  the  qualifications  demanded  by 
those  functions ;  and  our  third  inquiry  is  concerning  the  train- 
ing necessary  to  develop  those  qualifications. 


130  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Functions  of  The  Employment  Executive 

The  functions  of  the  highest  type  of  employment  execu- 
tive have  a  wide  range,  from  the  interviewing  of  an  applicant 
to  administrative  decisions  involving  the  largest  social  prob- 
lems.    For  our  purpose  I  classify  them  as  follows : 

1.  Those  functions  pertaining  directly  to  the  technical 
productive  efficiency  of  the  individual  employee.  Illustrative 
of  these  are :  The  selection  of  the  right  kind  of  employee  for 
any  of  the  classified  "jobs"  of  the  business;  the  analysis  and 
classification  of  the  "jobs"  making  up  the  business;  the  train- 
ing of  employees  within  the  plant  or  in  cooperation  with  edu- 
cational institutions ;  the  establishment  of  records,  involving 
the  determination  of  what  they  shall  contain;  the  routing  or 
transfer  or  interchange  of  employees;  the  discipline  of  em- 
ployees ;  the  determination  and  maintenance  of  proper  work- 
ing conditions ;  the  establishment  of  wage  rates  which  create 
"incentive,"  etc.  The  performance  of  these  functions  is  ac- 
complished, in  some  instances,  through  personal  contact  of  the 
employment  executive  with  the  individual  employee,  but  on  the 
whole  through  an  organized  machinery  of  minor  executives, 
and  there  is  involved,  therefore,  the  function  of  organizing  and 
operating   such   machinery. 

2.  Those  functions  pertaining  indirectly  to  the  productive 
efficiency  of  the  individual  employee  or  pertaining  to  the  rights 
of  the  employee  as  an  economic,  even  though  not  a  legal,  part- 
ner in  the  business.  Illustrative  of  these  are :  Consultations — 
made  possible  by  confidence,  and  on  the  initiative  of  the  em- 
ployee—concerning the  personal  problems  of  the  employees; 
the  maintenance  of  hospitals,  nurses,  physicians,  dentists,  etc. ; 
the  maintenance  of  hmch  rooms,  rest  rooms,  recreation 
grounds  and  equipment,  etc. ;  inspiration  and  assistance  in  the 
organization  of  an  employees'  cooperative  association  for 
various  mutual  benefit  activities,  such  as  the  establishment  of 
a  cooperative  store,  a  cooperative  bank,  etc.  The  performance 
of  these  functions  is  accomplished,  in  some  instances,  through 
personal  contact  with  the  individual,  but  usually  through  con- 
tact with  officers  and  committees  of  employees'  organizations. 

3.  Those  functions  pertaining  to  the  largest  administra- 
tive policies  and  problems  of  the  business.  The  best  type  of 
employment  executive  is  of  as  high  rank  as  the  works,  sales,  and 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       131 

financial  executives,  has  as  complete  and  independent  access  to 
the  office  of  the  president,  and  has  as  fully  his  confidence  with 
regard  to  problems  of  the  relation  between  the  management 
and  the  personnel  as  they  have  with  regard  to  the  problems  per- 
tinent to  their  respective  functions.  If  there  is  an  executive 
board  made  up  of  the  various  functional  managers,  he  is  the 
peer  of  any  man  on  that  board.  On  that  board  he  sits  in  a 
dual  capacity:  He  represents  on  the  one  hand  the  desires  and 
the  rights  of  the  working  force,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  de- 
sires and  the  rights  of  the  management.  He  is  harmonizer 
and  adjuster.  He  is  the  specialist  who  studies  the  problems 
of  industrial  democracj',  organized  labor,  collective  bargain- 
ing, eniplo3'ees'  consent,  and  so  on,  and  reports  his  investiga- 
tions and  conclusions,  with  recommendations,  to  that  board. 
The  performance  of  these  functions  brings  him.  into  contact 
with  leaders  of  the  working  people,  with  students  of  social 
affairs,  and  with  the  highest  executives  in  the  management. 

Qualifications  of  The  Employment  Executive 

The  necessary  qualifications  of  this  high  but  perfectly  prac- 
ticable type  of  employment  executive  are  determined  by  the 
functions  which  I  have  enumerated.  The  functions  are  wide 
in  range,  and  the  abilities  necessary  for  their  successful  per- 
formance are  equally  so.  The  big  employment  manager  must 
be  able  on  the  one  hand  to  meet  on  equal  terms  of  under- 
standing and  sympathy  the  humblest  working  boy  or  girl ;  he 
must  be  able,  on  the  other  hand,  by  weight  of  knowledge,  of 
logic,  and  of  personal  force,  to  convince  the  hard-headed  man- 
ager or  president  of  the  desirability  of  fundamental  and  some- 
times radical  changes  in  administrative  policy.  The  evolution 
of  the  business  conscience  lags  behind  that  of  the  social  con- 
science, especially  with  respect  to  the  human  problem,  and  now 
and  then  nothing  short  of  radical  change  in  the  business  con- 
science is  able  to  bring  it  into  alignment  with  the  social  con- 
science. I  suggest  the  following  classification  of  the  essential 
qualifications  of  the  employment  executive  who  is  strong  in 
every  phrase  of  his  work. 

I.  Personality. — He  must  be  courteous  and  even  tempered, 
and  never  "grouchy" ;  he  must  be  sympathetic  with  the  circum- 
stances  and   ideas   and   prejudices   of   the   working  people;   he 


132  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

must  never  depart  from  fairness  and  justice;  he  must  be  in- 
tuitive, for  he  must  sense  facts  which  are  not  told  to  him ; 
he  must  be  able  to  read  human  nature  and  judge  character; 
he  must  be  quick  and  sure  in  his  decisions;  he  must  be  firm, 
of  the  motor  type,  for  he  is  an  executive,  and  out  of  motor 
characteristics   arises  executive  energA'. 

2.  Mental  charactensttcs.—'H.e  must  be  able  to  search  for 
and  ascertain  facts  pertaining  to  his  problems,  give  them 
proper  relative  valuation,  and  make  sound  conclusions.  For 
years  he  will  be  pioneer  in  a  field  which  has  been  but  little  in- 
vestigated and  the  principles  of  which  have  not  been  formu- 
lated. He  must  be  able,  with  respect  to  one  problem,  to  pur- 
sue the  methods  of  the  inductive  scientists  and,  with  respect 
to  the  next  problem,  those  of  the  scientist  who  reasons  de- 
ductively. Tie  must  have  a  capacity  for  the  analysis  and  sub- 
sequent classification  of  facts,  for  in  such  capacity  does  or- 
ganizing ability  have  its  roots.  And  to  perform  its  highest 
functions,  he  must  have  constructive  imagination,  be  an  inde- 
pendent and  original  source  of  ideas,  see  things  which  are  de- 
sirable and  possible  in  the  light  of  present  tendencies,  but  in 
proof  of  which  all  the  necessary  data  are  not  yet  available. 
It  is  possession  of  constructive  imagination  which  makes  the 
great  administrator. 

3.  Information  and  experience,  and  a  knowledge  of  perti- 
nent facts  derived  from  contact  with  people  and  situations  and 
records. — As  an  employer  of  working  people  he  must  be  in- 
formed concerning  the  sources  of  supply;  the  various  types  of 
public  and  private  educational  institutions — general  and  spe- 
cialized, vocational  guidance  agencies,  employment  agencies, 
and  the  degree  of  efficiency  with  which  each  accomplishes  its 
aims.  As  the  organizer  of  a  training  school  within  his  plant, 
he  must  have  judgment  based  on  a  knowledge  of  facts  con- 
cerning educational  policies  and  methods,  and  concerning  in- 
struction in  specific  subjects.  In  his  contact  with  working 
people,  foremen,  superintendents,  and  higher  executives,  he 
must  have  possession  of  that  mass  of  facts  which  we  sum  up 
in  the  expression  "a  knowledge  of  human  nature."  He  must 
be  informed  in  the  science  of  psychology'  and  concerning  the 
possibilities  of,  and  limitations  to,  the  utilization  of  the  psy- 
chological laboratory  in  selecting  and  classifying  employees.  To 
enable  him  to  analyze  into  their  elements  the    processes  of  his  busi- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       133 

ness  and  to  classify  them  into  well-defined  "jobs,"  he  must  have  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  technical  processes  of 
his  business.  As  an  organizer  of  men  and  equipment  he  must 
be  well  informed  concerning  the  principles  of  efficient  organ- 
ization and  management.  As  an  administrator,  inspiring  the 
highest  executive  officers  toward  a  wise  policy  of  human  re- 
lationships, he  must  be  master  of  the  history  of  the  facts  and 
ideas  of  industrial  relationships. 

These  abilities,  demanded  of  the  best  type  of  employment 
executive — abilities  of  personality,  intellect,  and  knowledge, 
present  a  combination  which  is  extraordinary.  I  may  be  ac- 
cused of  picturing  an  ideal  employment  executive.  That  I  ad- 
mit, for  the  educator  who  aspires  to  train  a  young  man  to  be 
an3i:hing  less  is  unworthy  of  his  Responsibilities.  I  may  be 
accused  of  picturing  an  impossible  paragon.  That  I  deny.  I 
will  admit  that  the  employment  managers  whom  I  know  to  be 
strong  in  all  or  nearly  all  of  these  qualities  can  be  counted  on 
less  than  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  but  I  know  many  executives 
who  possess  part  of  these  qualifications  to  the  highest  degree, 
and  each  is  possessed  to  the  highest  degree  somewhere  by 
someone.  This  analj'sis  of  functions  and  qualifications  did  not 
originate  at  my  desk.  At  my  desk  I  have  simply  classified  the 
aggregate  of  functions  and  qualifications  I  have  seen  in  many 
places.  Training  for  the  employment  executive  function 
should  aim  to  develop  each  student  with  respect  to  each  of 
these  qualifications  to  the  highest  degree  possible,  in  accor- 
dance with  his  capacity  for  development.  Considering  the 
various  degrees  of  each  of  these  qualifications  which  men  may 
possess,  their  permutations  and  combinations  are  infinite,  and 
consequently  we  shall  develop  in  experience  an  infinite  variety 
of  executives.  The  greatest  employment  managers  will  be  those 
who  possess  all  of  these  abilities,  each  of  the  highest  degree. 
Such  men  can  be  attracted  into  executive  work  of  this  kind  if 
directors  and  presidents  will  value  the  function  highly  enough, 
and  will  oflfer  the  necessary  attracting  force  of  rank  and  re- 
muneration. .It  is  men  of  this  highest  type  that  education 
should  prepare  to  train.  Not  all  those  they  train  will  achieve 
the  highest  rank,  for  there  are  human  limitations  to  the  se- 
lection of  men  for  training,  and  there  are  unforseen  varieties 
of  reaction  of  men  for  training.  But  some  employment  execu- 
tives   of    genius    and    many    of    great    talent    can    be   produced. 


134  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

and    a    high    general    average    of    quality    of    product    can    be 
maintained. 

TJie  Training 

It  is  perfectly  obvious  that,  considering  the  type  of  em- 
ployment executive  we  aspire  to  develop,  the  machinery  of 
training  can  not  consist  merely  of  one  or  two  courses  of  three 
hours  each  for  one  semester,  entitled  "The  Functions  of  Em- 
ployment Management"  or  "The  Problems  of  Employment 
Management."  The  machinery  of  training  must  consist  of  the 
entire  educational  machinery,  supplemented  by  such  educational 
assistance  as  can  be  afforded  by  business  firms,  employment 
executives'  association,  and  vocation  bureaus.  We  must  con- 
ceive of  training  as  afforded,  not  by  one  or  two  specialized 
courses,  but  by  the  aggregate  of  courses  and  processes  of  an 
integrated  educational  industry.  The  one  or  two  specialized 
courses  serve  merely  to  give  the  final  bit  of  specialized  infor- 
mation, to  coordinate  and  relate  to  the  objective  the  larger 
amount  of  information  acquired  in  other  courses  and  in  ex- 
perience, and  to  effect  a  final  comprehension  of  the  specific 
problems  of  the  employment  management  function.  The  in- 
structor in  these  specialized  courses  is  like  the  assembler  in 
the  typewriter  or  cash-register  plant  who  brings  together  into 
a  whole,  suitable  for  a  particular  service,  numerous  parts 
which  have  been  through  many  preparatory,  selective,  and  fash- 
ioning processes.  Behind  the  assembling  of  the  parts  of  the 
cash  register  is  the  stamping,  the  turning,  the  casting  of  parts; 
behind  that  the  selection  of  the  raw  stock  and  the  specifica- 
tions of  the  metallurgist;  behind  that  the  work  of  the  besse- 
mer  or  open-hearth  or  crucible  plant;  behind  that  the  blast 
furnace  and  the  selection  of  magnetite  or  hematite  ores,  or  a 
scientifically  determined  mixture  of  both ;  and,  interwoven 
throughout  the  entire  series  of  processes,  the  analysis  of  the 
metallurgist,  the  rejection  of  defective  and  the  selection  of 
suitable  materials.  Likewise  with  respect  to  the  machinery  for 
training  the  best  type  of  specialized  executive;  back  of  the  one 
or  two  specialized  professional  courses  is  a  series  of  selecting, 
preparing,  and  conditioning  courses  and  experiences.  The 
specialized  employment-management  courses — finishing  pro- 
cesses— should  have  a  definite  relation  to  the  entire  preceding 
series  of  educational  processes. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       135 

Let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  classification  of  require- 
ments for  successful   employment  managership. 

1.  Personal  characteristics. — These  are  inborn,  not  made 
by  educational  processes.  An  educational  process  may  dis- 
cover for  an  individual  that  which  he  has  but  does  not  know 
he  has,  or  it  may  take  that  which  he  has  and  give  it  opportunity 
for  exercise  and  development.  But  it  can  not  make  a  motor 
temperament  of  a  sensory  temperament,  and  vice  versa. 
Therefore  our  system  of  training  must  involve  at  an  early 
stage  and  at  later  stages  mechanism  for  selecting  and  reject- 
ing, or  at  least  labeling,  candidates  for  the  training.  This 
selecting  or  guidance  mechanism  must  be  located,  part  at  the 
educational  institution,  part  at  a  highly  developed  vocational 
guidance  bureau,  and  part  at  a  cooperating  business  plant.  An 
essential  part  of  the  system  of  retaining  is  the  analysis  and  se- 
lection of  material  possessing  the  right  temperamental  charac- 
teristics. 

2.  Mental  characteristics. — The  development  of  abilities  to 
observe,  to  relate  and  value  facts,  to  anal}-ze  and  to  classif}', 
to  think  logically  and  to  form  sound  judgments  is  the  particular 
objective  of  the  educational  processes.  These  abilities  are,  how- 
ever, the  result  of  a  gradual  building-up  process.  It  takes 
time.  It  is  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  human  mind,  and 
is  as  deliberate  as  the  growth  of  a  tree.  Therefore,  with  re- 
spect to  the  development  of  these  abilities  in  our  selected  ma- 
terial, we  must  not  think  in  terms  of  one  year,  or  one  course, 
or  one  stratum  of  our  educational  system.  These  abilities  in 
our  material  are  developed  throughout  the  primary'  school,  the 
secondary  school,  and  the  college,  b}'  influence  in  the  class- 
room and  without  the  classroom,  cumulative  in  their  effect 
with  respect  to  mental  development.  They  are  developed  by 
discipline  in  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  Furthermore,  while 
the  educational  system  is  our  great  instrument  for  developing 
these  mental  abilities,  we  should  not  fail  to  realize  that  sup- 
plementary business  experience  can  offer  much  in  support  of 
the  processes  of  the  school  and  college,  and  we  should  enlist 
business  firms  in  our  work. 

3.  Information. — Those  parts  of  the  system  of  training 
necessary  to  give  the  prospective  employment  executive  the 
necessary  equipment  of  information  are  four : 


136  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

(a)  The  series  of  educational  processes  of  the  primary 
school,  the  secondary  school,  and  the  college,  cumulative  in 
their  effect  with  respect  to  the  imparting  of  information.  I 
am  not  thinking  merely  of  the  three  R's  and  similar  funda- 
mental information,  but  of  the  more  complex  information  ac- 
quired in  the  study  of  such  subjects  as  history,  political  sci- 
ence, sociology,  theoretical  and  applied  economics,  philosophy 
and  psychology.  All  such  information  becomes  of  practical 
use,  in  forming  judgments,  to  the  employment  executive  as  1 
have  defined  his   functions. 

(b)  A  group  of  specialized  courses  in  business  adminis- 
tration, of  a  general  nature,  concerned  with  all  phases  and 
functions  of  business,  and  not  specialized  with  respect  to  the 
employment  executive  function.  The  employment  executive 
does  not  perform  an  unrelated  function;  he  must  form  judg- 
ments concerning  the  relations  of  his  operations  to  other  func- 
tions, of  the  influence  of  his  recommendations  on  other  de- 
partment policies.  He  must  have  accurate  knowledge  of  busi- 
ness functions  other  than  his  own.  At  meetings  of  the  execu- 
tive board  his  recommendations  will  carry  weight  in  proportion 
to  the  confidence  he  has  created  in  other  executives'  minds  by 
repeated  evidence  of  his  understanding  of  their  duties  and 
problems. 

(c)  One  or  two  highly  specialized  courses,  relating  spe- 
cifically to  the  functions  and  problems  of  the  employment  ex- 
ecutive, imparting  information  about  the  organization  and  op- 
erations of  employment  departments  in  business  to-day,  ana- 
lyzing and  discussing  their  problems,  and  gathering  all  infor- 
mation acquired  in  more  general  courses  of  the  entire  educa- 
tional system,  and  reinterpreting  it  with  respect  to  the  new  and 
particular  point  of  view.  All  preliminary  courses  have  served 
to  fashion  the  arrow  and  prepare  the  necessary  parts ;  these 
particular  courses  attach  the  feather  and  sharpen  the  point. 

(rf)  In  connection  with  the  work  of  the  university  and  of 
the  university  school  of  business  administration,  there  must 
be  organized  relationship  for  apprenticeship  opportunities  with 
the  employment  department  of  business  firms.  I  emphasize 
the  word  "organized."  The  course  of  supplementary  instruc- 
tion in  the  plant  must  be  as  carefully  worked  out  and  as  com- 
plete as  is  that  in  the  university.  The  student  must  be  taken 
through  every  phase  of  the  department's  work,  and  must  have 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       I37 

an  experience  among  the  working  people.  This  supplemen- 
tary apprenticeship  experience  will  give  information  not  to 
be  secured  in  the  classroom,  will  give  information  about  the 
workability  of  principles  formulated  in  the  classroom,  and  will 
give  a  new  meaning  to  all  information  acquired  in  the  uni- 
versity. 

The  individual  thus  trained  for  employment  executive  work 
will  not  be  a  complete  and  experienced  employment  manager, 
ready  to  assume  full  responsibility,  but  he  will  be  high  grade 
material,  ready  for  final  training  in  actual  service  under  an  ex- 
perienced manager. 

INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  AS  A  NEW 
PROFESSION  FOR  WOMEN ' 

Everybody  now  knows  vaguely  what  Welfare  Work  is,  but 
few  know  the  character  and  details  of  the  work,  and  the  broader 
industrial  problem  which  it  is  raising. 

The  discovery  by  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  that  such  a  field 
of  activity  exists,  and  its  action  in  creating  a  government  de- 
partment for  its  encouragement,  has  suddenly  made  a  sporadic 
experiment  of  employers  into  a  matter  of  grave  importance  to 
the  industrial  world,  and  raised  problems  of  which  the  issues 
are  doubtful. 

The  very  recent  growth  of  organized  welfare  work  in  Eng- 
land is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  only  two  conferences  on  wel- 
fare work  have  been  held  in  England;  the  first,  in  1909,  at 
Birmingham,  when  17  firms  were  represented;  the  second,  in 
York,  in  1913,  when  27  firms  sent  representatives. 

In  America,  welfare  work  was  found  especially  under  the 
keenest  and  most  highly  specialised  management.  Almost  the 
whole  of  the  literature  on  scientific  management  is  American. 
In  England  the  initial  movement  has  been  more  indefinite,  phil- 
anthropic, and  sporadic. 

But  there  have  been,  from  the  first,  the  two  elements  that 
good  morale,  good  conditions,  good  health,  form  an  economic 
asset  (that  welfare  work  pays  as  a  business  concern),  and  sec- 
ondly, that  it  is  a  part  of  our  duty  to  our  neighbor,  a  recogni- 
tion that  master  and  men  are  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood;  that 
it  is  right. 

»  Paper  read  at  Barnet  House,  Oxford,  England,  November  26,  19 16, 
by  Hilda  Cashmore. 


138  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

I  have  called  the  underlying  English  motive  "philanthropic," 
but  I  am,  probably,  scarcely  doing  it  justice.  To  the  best  modern 
employers  has  come  a  consciousness  that  the  young  persons 
whom  he  is  employing,  and  the  mothers  and  young  women  who 
are  in  his  factories  have  other  functions  beside  the  industrial, 
that  this  labour  is  not  simply  a  commodity,  but  is  part  of  poten- 
tial power  of  the  nation,  and  that  he  who  uses  it  has  responsibil- 
ities both  to  the  individual  worker  and  to  the  nation.  This 
attempt  to  express  the  claims  of  citizenship  in  the  business  or- 
ganization of  great  industries  is  a  most  hopeful  sign  of  the 
times,  and  is  not  likely  to  disappear  now  that  its  rapid  extension 
to  meet  the  emergency  of  industrial  development  in  the  war  has 
brought  it  with  so  much  prominence  before  the  minds  of  em- 
ployers. 

Where  a  firm,  rather  than  an  individual  director,  is  responsi- 
ble for  the  welfare  work  in  the  factory,  one  director  is  still 
generally  found  to  be  giving  his  attention  especially  to  it,  and  in 
nearly  all  cases  the  director  is  both  sensitive  in  a  peculiar  degree 
to  the  conditions  under  which  his  fellow  citizens  live,  and  alive 
to  the  newer  methods  of  factory  organization.  But,  as  a  rule, 
employers  have  not  been  sufficiently  aware  of  the  class  of  person 
required,  and  the  kind  of  training  demanded  of  the  man  or 
woman  who  is  to  undertake  this  work  for  them.  Miss  Proud 
gives  an  amusing  list  of  those  she  found  acting  as  welfare  work- 
ers. Clergymen,  teachers,  organists,  doctors,  gymnasts,  over- 
lookers, cooks,  and  ex-constables,  are  some  of  those  who  are 
found  engaged  on  the  work;  and  this  is  not* altered  yet. 

An  analysis  of  the  duties  undertaken  by  a  welfare  worker 
shows  a  variety  as  great  as  her  qualifications  and  as  the  personal 
idiosyncrasies  of  her  employer.  In  one  factory  the  welfare 
worker  engages  and  dismisses  girls,  has  complete  control  of  all 
matters  of  health,  studies  the  wage  sheets,  reports  on  the  safety 
of  the  girls  in  the  machinery,  and  their  capacity  in  their  particu- 
lar jobs,  is  responsible  for  the  general  cleanliness  and  sanitation 
of  the  factory,  is  referred  to  in  all  matters  of  discipline,  and 
controls  the  arrangements  for  dining  rooms,  rest  rooms,  and 
cloak  rooms.  In  another,  she  is  a  kind  of  district  visitor,  attend- 
ing the  faint,  visiting  the  sick,  and  arranging  social  gatherings 
in  the  dinner  hour.  For  a  third,  she  is  really  a  club  worker, 
with  recreational  and  social  work  in  the  evenings,  with  no  voice 
at  all  in  the  practical  business  affairs  of  every-day  life  in  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       139 

factory.  In  some  she  is  the  trained  nurse,  dealing  with  accidents 
and  bad  health,  and  she  has  her  office  altogether  apart  from  the 
main  body  of  the  works.  In  a  fifth,  she  is  a  skilled  caterer,  who 
supervises  the  dining  arrangements,  and  there  her  duties  end. 

As  her  work  so  are  her  powers.  In  some  factories  she  works 
all  day,  and  every  evening:  largely,  I  think,  by  her  own  fault, 
for  this  weakness  is  still  characteristic  of  women  workers,  that 
they  tend  to  make  their  work  their  life.  In  some  she  arrives 
with  the  senior  staff  at  10  a.  m.,  and  leaves  at  4  p.  m.  or  5  p.  m. 
In  some,  she  is  there  at  6  a.  m.,  and  is  expected  to  be  up  at  night 
at  intervals. 

As  to  position  it  is  the  same  story.  I  know  two  first-rate 
works  in  the  same  town,  in  each  of  which  a  welfare  worker  was 
appointed.  In  the  first  she  was  appointed  to  work  under  the 
general  manager.  A  notice  was  sent  round  to  the  heads  of 
every  department,  announcing  that  she  had  been  appointed,  that 
all  matters  of  discipline  and  health,  of  the  engagement  of  the 
girls  were  in  her  hands,  and  that  every  consideration  was  to  be 
shown  her.  In  the  other,  her  position  was  not  defined,  she  was 
put  in  with  no  explanation  and  with  no  definition  of  duty.  She 
was  told  that  the  idea  of  a  welfare  worker  was  a  new  one,  and 
would  naturally  be  unpopular,  and  that  she  must  make  her  way 
as  she  could. 

The  extraordinary  anomalies  here  are,  of  course,  due  to  the 
present  organization  of  industrial  work.  The  directors,  the 
managing  director,  the  manager  (or  "works^'  manager),  the 
foreman  and  forewoman,  have  their  assured  position,  and  their 
allotted  work,  which  is  as  little  disputed  as  that  of  the  various 
officers  in  an  army.  Into  this  rigid  system  a  new  officer  has 
been  introduced,  and  it  is  still  a  matter  of  experiment  merely, 
as  to  which  order  she  belongs,  and  which  duties  should  be  filched 
from  each  and  allotted  to  her. 

Into  this  chaotic  condition  of  things  the  exigencies  of  the  war 
entered.  About  a  quarter  of  a  million  extra  women  have  en- 
tered industry.  Many  have  come  to  "dilute"  skilled  labour,  en- 
tering men's  workshops,  fitted  for  men's  use  only,  to  work  the 
maximum  hours  at  the  maximum  amount  of  inconvenience. 
Some  have  gone  into  entirely  new  shops,  perfectly  fitted,  and 
organized  for  them.  Some  are  here,  there,  and  everywhere  tak- 
ing men's  places  in  all  kinds  of  trade.  It  was  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  difficult  problems  of  this  period  of  displacement  that 


140  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

the  Ministry  of  Munitions  entered  the  field  as  the  greatest  em- 
ployer of  labour  in  the  country,  and  with  that  new  state  depart- 
ment came  its  welfare  department,  which  has  deliberately  taken 
this  inchoate  idea  of  welfare  work,  and  given  it  the  prestige 
and  the  authority  of  the  government. 

The  matter  of  first  importance  was  the  question  as  to  the 
appropriate  body  to  appoint  these  welfare  workers — the  govern- 
ment or  the  management,  and  to  whom  they  w^ere  to  be  responsi- 
ble. It  was  decided  that  the  management  was  to  appoint  them 
from  a  panel  supplied  by  the  Ministry,  but  the  panel  was  to  be 
regarded  as  a  recommendation  only. 

To  those  who  look  on,  two  most  interesting  problems  pre- 
sented themselves.  Welfare  work,  a  sporadic  growth,  due  to 
individual  philanthropy,  or  individual  grasp  of  the  new  sig- 
nificance of  scientific  management,  which  was,  at  the  best,  at  the 
experimental  stage,  suddenly  appears  from  a  new  angle,  as  a 
new  form  of  government  demand,  as  an  integral  part  of  that 
slow  development  of  state  control  covered  by  the  history  of 
factory  legislation,  as  a  new  claim  by  the  state  on  the  employer 
of  labour.  Its  anomalous  position  is  greater  than  ever  when  one 
finds  it  imposed  not  by  the  Home  Office,  but  by  a  new  govern- 
ment department. 

The  interesting  problem  is  its  probable  line  of  development 
after  the  war.  It  had  bid  fair  to  be  one  of  the  master  keys  of 
the  new  organization  of  capital,  but  there  are  indications  now 
that,  instead,  it  may  become  one  of  the  links  in  the  great  chain 
of  factory  acts.  But,  if  so,  it  is  well  worth  while  to  examine 
carefully  all  that  can  be  said  against  it.  To  many  of  us  the 
position  of  the  Government,  as  arbiter  rather  than  partisan  in 
industrial  disputes,  is  of  supreme  importance.  An  examination 
of  the  objections  of  Labour  are  worth  studying,  and  are  a  little 
difficult  to  gauge  because  they  have  never  been  formulated.  The 
first  lies  in  the  very  initiation  of  the  movement.  It  is  employ- 
ers' welfare  work,  and  therefore  as  their  work,  it  shares  the 
general  suspicion  of  organized  labour.  Where  there  is  open 
war  there  can  be  no  terms  with  the  enemy. 

But  there  are  subtler  objections.  There  is  a  consciousness  on 
the  part  of  labour  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  making  unskilled 
labour  and  all  women's  labour  agree  to  combine.  The  lever  in 
the  past  has  been  the  indignation  at  the  abuses  in  the  industrial 
system.    The  fear  is  that  to  remove  them  from  above,  without 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       141 

any  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  worker  is  to  increase  the  apathy 
and  want  of  initiative  inherent  in  monotonous  paid  work. 

This,  of  course,  couched  in  other  language,  is  frankly  used 
by  some  employers  as  an  argument  in  favour  of  establishing 
welfare  work. 

Thirdly,  there  is  the  deep  suspicion  of  philanthropy  which  is 
inherent  in  the  modern  view  of  life.  It  is  a  fascinating  subject 
to  analyze  out,  but  it  would  take  too  long.  In  the  industrial 
world  it  is,  I  think,  the  direct  product  of  the  growth  of  the 
entrepreneur  class,  founded  on  the  "laissez  faire"  economics  of 
the  early  nineteenth  century,  as  it  was  ameliorated  by  an  ever- 
increasing  out-pouring  of  philanthropy,  prompted  by  an  in- 
dividualistic religion.  It  shows  itself  in  a  suspicion  of  the  mo- 
tive of  capitalist  philanthropy.  Added  to  this  is  the  irritation  of 
workpeople  of  the  better  and  more  independent  kind  at  the 
fussy  interference  of  the  welfare  worker.  The  story  of  welfare 
work  is  full  of  such  incidents  as  that  of  the  lady  who  objected 
to  girls  wearing  "openwork  stockings,"  and  of  the  man  who  was 
controlling  a  hostel,  and  made  a  rule  that  all  must  be  in  at  g.30, 
"clean  and  sober."  There  is  the  lady  who  thinks  her  room  in 
the  factory  should  be  as  like  as  possible  to  a  boudoir,  in  order  to 
keep  up  the  sense  of  respect  between  herself  and  (presumably) 
the  domestic  servant  class  whom  she  is  graciously  pleased  to 
control. 

The  attitude  of  the  welfare  worker,  as  "social  conscience," 
for  her  employer,  appeals  as  I  have  said,  to  a  certain  type  of 
mind  to  which  philanthropy  is  the  natural  door  of  communica- 
tion between  class  and  class. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  be  able  to  analyse  how  far  this 
philanthropic  motive  has  influenced  the  women  who  have  gone 
into  the  profession  this  year.  But  to  the  social  student  who 
looks  ahead,  this  path  appears  to  lead  only  to  a  blind  alley.  The 
age  for  this  beneficence  of  a  charity  extended  from  one  class  to 
another  beneath  it  has  gone.  The  cry  for  justice  and  not  charity 
is  the  natural  reaction  from  much  kindly  but  unsound  reasoning. 
The  simple  fact  is  that  the  "factory  girl,"  who  is  the  object  of 
these  benefits,  does  not  consider  herself  "poor"  at  all,  in  this 
sense  of  the  word,  nor  does  she  conceive  of  her  employer  as  a 
benefactor  who  kindly  allows  her  to  work.  She  looks  upon  her- 
self as  a  human  being,  full  of  charm  and  interest,  much  as  those 
of  us  who  are  young  imagine  ourselves  to  be,  and  she  actively 


142  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

resents  "the  lady,"  who  appears  in  her  working  surroundings  and 
pursues  her  with  unasked-for  benefits.     This  appears  inevitable. 

Again,  there  is  a  growing  fear  on  the  part  of  labour  as  to  the 
share  the  welfare  worker,  "the  paid  spy  of  the  management," 
as  I  have  heard  it  put  by  those  who  are  hostile  to  it,  will  have  in 
foisting  the  "speeding  up"  process,  inherent  in  scientific  manage- 
ment, on  unwilling  workers.    I  will  revert  to  this  later. 

But  there  is  another  class  of  objections  which  can  be  urged 
from  quite  another  side. 

We  all  probably  agree — those  who  know  most  about  the  dif- 
ficulties which  employers  had  to  face  are  least  doubtful — that 
the  Ministry  of  Munitions  was  justified  in  starting  a  welfare  de- 
partment when  it  did.  But  it  is  another  matter,  about  which 
some  must  feel  very  doubtful,  whether  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment will  be  equally  beneficicnt  if  it  tries  to  give  the  present 
experiment  the  support  of  Government  pressure  after  this  crisis 
is  over.  Now  this  is  a  veiy  difficult  question,  and  while  we  have 
been  training  welfare  workers  with  an  eye  to  the  present  emer- 
gency, we  have  been  puzzled  by  this  further  question.  I  am 
going  to  digress  in  order  to  state  it  fully. 

The  gravity  of  the  situation  at  home  to-day  lies  in  the 
divergence  between  the  interests  of  labour  and  capital,  the  slow 
organization  of  two  hostile  forces,  skilled,  trained,  gaining  ex- 
perience as  they  go  along,  biding  their  time,  each  with  immense 
funds,  and  armed  with  British  obstinacy. 

The  awful  results  of  war  have  burnt  themselves  into  this 
generation,  and  the  idealism  of  the  best  leaders  on  either  side 
points  to  a  searching  after  the  consciousness  of  an  eventual  com- 
munity of  interest  between  masters  and  men,  with  a  wise  gov- 
ernment as  arbitrator. 

In  the  midst  of  much  that  is  black  in  the  industrial  future, 
some  facts  emerge  already:  the  willingness  of  labour  to  give  up 
its  dearest  rights  in  the  face  of  national  peril;  the  slow  ac- 
cumulation by  government  departments,  especially  through  the 
development  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  of  the  knowledge  of  a 
thousand  minute  details  of  our  complicated  industrial  system, 
without  which  it  could  hardly  have  acted  as  arbiter  in  the  future ; 
the  greatly  increased  voice  of  labour  in  the  administration  of 
the  country,  and  a  growing  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  public 
that  the  very  men  that  they  suspected  as  Trades  Unionists,  are 
the  men   whom   they    are    honouring    and    feting    as   soldiers, 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       143 

wounded  from  the  trenches ;  last,  but  not  least,  the  more  intimate 
connection  with  the  self-governing  Dominions. 

There  is  already  a  faint  hope  that  the  rapprochement  may 
come  slowly  upon  typically  British  lines,  and  that  the  present 
representatives  of  the  management  and  of  the  workpeople  will 
work  together  with  greater  unity  of  aim  in  the  direction  and 
development  of  their  industry  as  a  whole. 

Then  the  function  of  the  Government  will  still  be  to  keep  the 
balance  true  by  hedging  the  road  of  industrial  betterment  by  the 
use  of  its  authority,  to  embody  in  the  form  of  regulations  the  ex- 
periments that  have  proved  themselves  of  advantage  to  the  for- 
ward spirits  in  the  different  classes  in  the  particular  industries. 

Now  in  this  Welfare  Department,  the  state,  driven  by  emer- 
gency, has  really  taken  up  an  experiment  still  in  the  period  of 
confusion.  I  have  examined  the  nebulous  character  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  welfare  worker.  What  really  is  being  asked  of  her? 
She  is  being  asked  to  undertake  the  functions  of  a  school  mis- 
tress in  the  fashioning  of  manners  and  morals,  of  the  hospital 
nurse  in  tending  the  sick,  of  the  trades  union  official  in  con- 
trolling an  adult  community,  of  the  manageress  or  matron  in 
responsibility  for  the  efficiency  of  certain  departments  of  the 
factory.  She  is  asked  to  undertake  all  these  duties  simul- 
taneously both  to  young  persons  and  adult  women.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  one  qualification  insisted  on  is  tact. 

Turn  for  one  minute  to  the  engineering  trade,  and  put  the 
question  how  far  the  employers  or  the  employees  will  welcome 
a  man  welfare  worker  of  the  same  type,  or  the  Ministry  press 
for  one  to  be  appointed.    The  idea  appears  at  once  as  absurd. 

The  situation,  to  my  mind,  needs  a  much  more  careful 
analysis.  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  great  function  for  the  state  in  the 
development  of  the  schoolmaster  type  of  welfare  worker  in 
every  factory  which  employs  young  persons. 

This  function  has  been  grasped  by  the  most  advanced  of 
British  employers,  and  remarkable  experiments  are  being  made 
in  Birmingham,  York,  and  other  places.  It  is  full  of  hope,  but 
this  is  quite  another  matter,  ruled  out  from  the  present  Welfare 
Department  of  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  by  the  necessities  of 
the  case.  It  is  at  present  undertaken  by  employers  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Board  of  Education,  and  it  would  seem  that  a 
welfare  department  under  that  Board,  composed  of  representa- 
tives of   employers,   trade    union   officials,    and    educationalists 


144  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

would  be  the  fitting  means  of  extending  this  work.  It  would 
take  it  at  once  out  of  the  region  of  industrial  dispute.  The  work 
could  then  include  definite  educational  work,  all  kinds  of  club 
and  recreational  work,  general  supervision  of  "manners  and 
morals,"  down,  it  may  be,  to  the  reform  of  such  matters  as  the 
open  work  stockings,  if  such  are  proved  unhygienic. 

Such  functions  as  those  of  a  trained  nurse,  of  a  caterer  and 
general  supervisor  of  dining  and  rest  arrangements,  might  be 
grafted  on  to  the  requirements  of  the  factory  department,  and 
cause  no  more  dispute  than  in  the  past.  They  are,  indeed,  al- 
ready allocated  to  that  Department  by  the  recent  Police  Miscel- 
laneous Provisions  Act. 

So  the  "official"  welfare  worker  would  disappear  as  an  ex- 
periment warranted  by  the  exigencies  of  a  time  of  crisis  and  of 
transition,  and  so  she  would  not  perpetuate  herself  in  a  new 
government  department. 

There  may  be  "welfare"  functions  left,  which  a  prosperous 
and  highly  skilled  industry  as  the  textile  or  engineering  industry 
might  wish  to  carry  on,  such  as  a  work's  library,  or  playing 
fields  for  adult  workers.  The  ideal  method  of  the  appointment 
of  such  a  person  would  be  by  a  committee,  representing  the 
management  and  workpeople  together,  both  finding  the  salary 
and  deciding  on  the  duties. 

Such  a  welfare  worker  might  be  of  the  employer  or  of  the 
employee  class ;  his  qualifications  for  the  post  would  be  his  per- 
sonality and  his  education.  He  would  be  one  of  the  new  army 
of  trained  social  workers  whose  general  education  has  been 
assured  before  his  entrance  upon  a  course  of  social  training. 
That  social  training  would  have  been  so  constructed  as  to  give 
him  insight  into  the  methods  and  ideals  of  such  work,  and  to 
bring  him  into  touch  with  men  and  women  on  both  sides  of  in- 
dustry. It  would  be  a  course  such  as  the  new  Universities  are 
trying  to  evolve  to  meet  the  need. 

So  the  entry  of  women  into  men's  trades  and  into  industry 
generally  would  not  bring  with  it  a  further  inroad  of  those  old 
bugbears  of  labour  "dependence,"  "management  from  above," 
"philanthropy,"  which  make  men  so  fearful  of  the  effect  of 
women's  labour  as  tending  to  lower  their  whole  standard  of  life, 
and  women  would  be  encouraged  to  be  responsible  and  self-gov- 
erning citizens  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  whole  state. 

But  to  return  to  the  narrower  field,  the  possibilities  of  wel- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       145 

fare  work  as  a  new  profession  for  University  women.  The  ex- 
perience of  the  munition  factories  alone  proves  that  there  is  a 
place  for  it,  and  that  it  is  important  to  find  the  right  type  of 
women.  In  this  warning  I  have  tried  only  to  clear  the  ground 
for  you  from  some  inevitable  disappointments.  It  is  for  the 
moment  exceedingly  practical  work  of  a  useful  and  necessary 
kind,  in  a  narrow  but  important  sphere,  undertaken  now  by  a 
trained  and  capable  woman  in  one  of  the  great  munition  areas, 
it  is  national  work  of  first  importance.  But  there  are  more 
permanent  advantages.  A  young  woman,  with  the  heart  of  a 
philanthropist  and  the  head  of  a  student,  would  find  it  an  admir- 
able exercise,  for  a  year  or  so  after  her  year  at  theoretical  social 
study,  as  a  preliminary  to  work  as  a  factory  inspector,  or  a 
Board  of  Trade  official.  Again,  it  may  be  an  invaluable  business 
training.  Indeed,  I  say  may  be,  because  business,  like  every- 
thing else  in  England,  is  immensely  individual,  and  a  good  busi- 
ness woman  entering  a  factory  may  feel  more  inclined  to  be  a 
reformer  than  a  learner.  It  is  well  to  have  studied  the  matter 
before  entrance  into  a  factory,  and  not  to  assume  the  method 
will  be  infallible. 

Or,  again,  insight  can  be  gained  into  the  relation  of  certain 
sides  of  factory  life  in  the  development  of  the  character  of  the 
wage-earning  citizen,  and  into  these  problems  of  speed,  of 
monotony,  of  length  of  hours,  of  the  relative  value  of  individual- 
ity in  mechanical  work. 

It  is  valuable  for  the  study  of  certain  aspects  of  labour  or- 
ganization. I  think  there  is  less  scope  for  study  of  this  problem 
than  one  would  expect  on  the  face  of  it,  for  the  reason  that  I 
have  shown.  The  welfare  worker  enters  on  the  employer's  side, 
and  discipline  impels  a  detached  and  impersonal  attitude. 

In  two  other  directions,  neither  of  which  have  as  yet  been 
developed,  I  think  it  does  hold  very  great  possibilities  for  Uni- 
versity women  of  the  first  group. 

For  the  University  woman  who  would  like  to  become  an  em- 
ployer of  labour  it  might  be  an  admirable  first  step. 

Business  has  always  been  considered  not  quite  suitable  for 
English  women,  who  differ  entirely  from  their  French  sisters 
in  this  respect.  Frequently  in  families  where  the  men  have  left 
the  Universities  and  gone  into  their  father's  works,  the  daugh- 
ters have  prided  themselves  on  knowing  nothing  at  all  of  busi- 
ness or  of  business  conditions.     It  has  not  been  the  best  thing 


146  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

for  the  English  middle  classes  that  this  has  been  so.  It  has 
fostered  that  false  sense  of  so-called  philanthropy,  in  which  the 
brothers,  untaught  in  social  problems,  have  produced  conditions 
of  squalor,  by  the  conditions  under  which  their  employees 
worked,  while  their  sisters  at  home,  equally  ignorant,  have  spent 
the  money  so  made,  in  doing  charity  in  those  very  neighbour- 
hoods, which  are  the  result  of  such  conditions,  and  which  are 
further  depraved  by  the  addition  of  charitable  work. 

The  humane  and  home  instinct  which  most  Englishwomen 
possess,  their  more  concrete  minds,  their  interest  in  the  details 
of  domestic  life  would  be  of  utmost  value  in  the  economy  of 
the  factory.  A  young  woman  who  wants  to  make  a  beginning 
cannot  do  better  than  to  take  one  of  these  business  posts  thus 
opened  to  her  and  get  the  training  it  offers.  While  women 
crowd  into  industry  on  the  side  of  the  employe,  it  is  quite  a 
matter  worthy  of  consideration  if  the  solution  of  some  problems 
which  they  raise  will  not  best  be  made  by  women  entering  it  on 
the  employer's  side.  A  woman  director,  in  concerns  which  em- 
ploy many  hundreds  of  women  would  probably  be  a  most  wel- 
come addition  to  the  management.  Anyway,  I  commend  the 
idea  to  the  young. 

Or  again  to  the  University  woman  with  a  mathematical  or 
scientific  bent  of  mind,  such  a  profession  may  be  the  first  step 
in  a  new  and  fascinating  field  of  research.  This  new  organiza- 
tion of  business  which  we  call  American,  which  is  known  as 
"Scientific  Management,"  offers  a  field  of  research  of  most  vital 
interest  for  the  future  well-being  of  our  people. 

It  is  research  of  an  intricacy  and  delicacy  of  observation 
which  demands  highly  trained  and  intelligent  students.  It  is 
already  on  the  way,  and  is  looked  at  by  all  thoughtful  work- 
people with  deepest  suspicions  and  foreboding.  I,  personally, 
do  not  think  that  there  is  any  exaggeration  in  the  statement  so 
often  made,  that  scientific  management  will  produce  as  great  a 
revolution  in  the  twentieth  century  in  the  industrial  world,  as 
the  introduction  of  machinery  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries. 

That  this  new  organization  should  be  accepted  and  controlled 
by  the  workpeople  is  the  necessar}'  condition  of  their  prosperity. 
If  they  resist  it,  machinery  will  conquer  them.  If  they  master  it 
and  have  won  a  share  in  the  management  while  it  is  yet  in  its 
infancy,  much  evil  will  be  spared  us. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       147 

There  are  five  essentials  for  the  work: 

I. — An  intimate  knowledge  and  sympathy  with  women  and 
girls.  This  can  best  be  acquired  by  such  methods  as  teaching 
in  a  primary  school,  life  in  a  settlement,  work  in  a  women's  trade 
union  office,  living  at  the  same  time  in  a  poor  neighbourhood. 
Without  this  fundamental  experience  no  one  should  take  up 
welfare  work. 

2. — A  careful  study  of  industrial  problems  which  affect 
women's  labour: — such  problems  as  the  displacement  of  men  by 
women,  married  women's  work,  the  educational  needs  of  "young 
persons,"  the  home  life  of  women  and  girls,  the  working  of 
such  acts  as  the  Insurance  Acts  and  the  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion Act. 

3.— A  knowledge,  both  theoretical  and  practical,  of  the  health 
of  women  and  girls,  and  how  it  is  affected  by  speed  of  output, 
the  kind  of  commissiariat  provided,  the  questions  of  ventilation 
and  heating,  and  questions  of  housing  accommodation. 

4. — A  knowledge  of  the  technical  side  of  the  work,  indexing, 
filing,  account  keeping,  domestic  arrangements  in  rest  rooms, 
cloak  rooms,  the  organization  of  a  factory,  and  the  relations  be- 
tween general  managers,  managers,  foremen  and  forewomen. 

5. — A  conception  of  the  right  relation  between  the  life  of  the 
factory  with  all  its  agencies  for  good,  and  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity, the  inter-action  of  each  upon  the  other.  This  involves 
a  serious  study  of  the  social  structure  of  the  community. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT 

A  FUNCTIONALIZED  EMPLOYMENT  DEPART- 
MENT AS  A  FACTOR  IN  INDUSTRIAL 
EFFICIENCY ' 

The  most  significant  fact  pertaining  to  industrial  manage- 
ment today  is  the  attention  which  is  being  given  to  the  prob- 
lems of  personnel.  Recognition  is  being  given  to  the  truth 
that  new  sources  of  power  and  evolution  of  mechanical  pro- 
cesses have  but  changed  the  points,  in  methods  of  production, 
at  which  the  human  factor  is  essential,  without  changing  to 
any  degree  the  ultimate  dependence  upon  it. 

The  impressive  thing  is  not  that  some  men  recognize  the 
importance  of  the  individual  worker,  for  this  has  always  been 
true  of  some;  it  is  that  such  recognition  is  so  rapidly  be- 
coming general,  since  it  has  been  so  long  delayed.  Yet  the 
causes  are  obvious.  Power  can  be  produced  for  A  and  Z  with 
Httle  variation  in  cost  to  either.  Plant  design  has  been  stan- 
dardized until  one  can  gain  small  advantage  over  another 
herein.  The  same  mechanical  equipment  can  be  secured  by 
one  as  by  the  other.  There  is  no  longer  marked  advantage 
possible  to  the  thoroughly  progressive  house  over  another, 
equally  progressive  and  intelligent,  in  the  securing  of  raw  ma- 
terials, in  the  mechanical  processes  of  manufacture,  or  in  the 
methods  of  promotion  and  distribution.  Wherein  lies  possible 
advantage  of  A  over  Z  in  the  competition  between  them?  Or 
the  question  may  read  for  Z,  how  may  he  retain  his  prosperity 
in  competition  with  A?  This  is  one  phase  of  the  compelling 
logic  which  is  leading  to  the  study  of  problems  of  employment. 

It  becomes  increasingly  evident  that  the  statement  frequent- 
ly made  is  universally  true,  if  interpreted  broadly,  that  the  in- 
terests of  employer  and  employe  are  inextricably  bound  to- 
gether. 

*  By  Ernest  M.  Hopkins,  President  Dartmouth  College;  former  Man- 
ager of  the  Employment  Department,  Curtis  Publishing  Co.  Annals  of 
the  American  Academy.     65:67-76.     May,  1916. 


150  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

The  social  significance  of  questions  relating  to  the  mutual 
interests  of  employers  and  employes  is  so  great  tliat  these 
could  not  have  been  much  longer  kept  subordinate  under  any 
circumstances;  but  the  utilitarian  advantage  to  employers,  in- 
dividually and  collectively,  of  scientific  study  of  these  prob- 
lems has  become  so  plain  that  the  present  general  interest  in 
them  among  industrial  leaders  can  most  positively  be  ascribed 
to  the  fact  that,  whatever  else  they  are,  they  are  a  vital  con- 
cern of  good  business. 

It  was  logical,  when  industrial  management  reached  the 
stage  that  its  practices  could  be  defined,  and  the  preliminary 
studies  made  to  separate  the  good  and  the  bad,  in  course  of  re- 
ducing such  management  to  a  science,  that  attention  should 
have  been  focussed  first  on  processes,  machines  and  buildings. 
These  things  needed  to  be  right  before  the  worker  could 
realize  his  possibilities.  It  is  to  be  recognized,  however,  that 
though  the  word  "efficiency"  came  into  wide  use  during  this 
stage  of  dealing  with  inanimate  factors,  the  word  is  entitled 
to  the  far  broader  significance  which  carries  an  import  of  all- 
around  effectiveness.  Industrial  efificiency,  under  proper  de- 
finition, does  mean  and  must  be  understood  to  mean  right 
workers  and  right  conditions  for  them  as  distinctly  as  right 
machines  and   conditions   designed   for  their  best  operation. 

This  is  the  broad  principle  on  which  the  functionalized 
employment  department  has  been  established.  It  is  simply  the 
application  of  the  same  reasoning  to  finding  and  maintaining 
the  labor  supply  that  has  already  been  applied  in  industry  to 
problems  of  building,  equipment,  mechanical  supervision,  and 
the  methods  by  which  business  is  despatched. 

There  is  this  greater  difficulty  in  establishing  a  function- 
alized department  for  employment  and  correlated  responsi- 
bilities than  in  establishing  a  department  for  almost  anything 
else,  that  however  frankly  men  will  acknowledge  limitations 
on  some  sides,  few  will  admit  or  believe  that  they  are  not 
particularly  perspicacious  in  their  judgments  of  men.  This 
is  particularly  true  of  those  of  circumscribed  vision,  whose 
advantages  have  been  few  and  whose  opportunities  for  de- 
veloping breadth  in  their  mental  processes  have  been  limited, 
as  is  the  case  with  many  minor  executives  or  subforemen. 
Such  an  one  feels,  perhaps  not  unnaturally,  tliat  his  prestige 
with    the    new    employe   is    impaired   if   employment   is    secured 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       151 

through  some  department  outside  his  own.  Moreover,  he  is 
hkel}'  to  ascribe  to  the  employment  department  no  other  basis 
of  appraisal  than  he  himself  has  used,  and  with  this  as  a  pre- 
mise, he  argues  that  his  own  intuition  is  better  than  that  of 
one  who  lacks  his  own  intimate  knowledge  of  the  work  for 
which  he  is  responsible.  Almost  invariably,  too,  he  fails  to 
value  to  reasonable  extent  the  loss  to  his  own  work  which 
comes  from  the  waste  of  time  involved  in  interviewing  and 
employing,  even  if  he  undertakes  to  do  this  with  such  care 
as  that  of  which  he  may  be  capable. 

Too  much  emphasis  may  not  be  placed,  however,  on  the 
difficulties  incident  to  establishing  the  employment  department, 
for  the  foremost  concerns  have  so  definitely  accepted  the 
principle  that  it  is  bound  to  be  accepted  generally.  It  should 
simply  be  recognized  that  such  a  department  cannot  fulfill  its 
function  to  become  a  large  contributor  to  the  success  of  the 
business  unless  it  be  given  recognition  and  endorsement  suffi- 
cient to  gain  for  it  cooperation  from  the  departments  with 
whose  problems  of  personnel  it  must  be  in  contact.  A  large 
responsibility  rests  upon  the  employment  department  to  work 
carefully  and  considerately,  with  open  mind  and  appreciation 
of  the  problems  of  others;  but  even  so,  occasional  support  in 
the  way  of  instructions  from  above  will  be  needed  to  give  the 
department  access  to  some  parts  of  the  field  wherein  its  work 
should  be  done. 

This  raises  the  question  as  to  the  place  of  the  department 
in  the  organization.  There  can  be  only  one  answer,  if  the  in- 
stallation of  the  work  is  made  in  good  faith — it  must  be  in 
direct  contact  with  the  topmost  management,  \vhere  its  prob- 
lems can  be  passed  upon  promptly  and  decisively  by  ultimate 
authorit}',  if  issues  arise.  More  important  than  this,  the  cre- 
ation and  establishment  of  such  a  department  in  a  business 
should  mean  that  the  avenues  of  communication  between  those 
in  the  ranks  and  those  at  the  top,  which  too  often  have  be- 
come closed  as  a  business  has  grown  large,  are  to  be  re-open- 
ed. If  this  does  not  become  true,  the  potentiality  for  good  in 
such  work  can  never  be  more  than  partially  realized. 

It  is  a  duty  that  distinctly  belongs  to  the  employment 
office,  to  cultivate  sympathetic  knowledge  of  the  opinions  of 
workers  and  to  bespeak  these  to  the  management.  All  industry  is 
so   set  up   that   the    word   of    the   management    can   be   quickly 


152  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

and  easily  transmitted  down.  It  is  no  less  of  consequence  to 
those  above  than  to  those  below  that  some  agency  exists  for 
facilitating  the  reverse  process. 

Industrial  efficiency  could  not  have  been  so  definitely  ad- 
vanced as  it  has  been  without  gigantic  accomplishment  in 
gathering  data,  codifying  them,  and  the  establishment  of  sys- 
tems to  realize  benefits  from  the  lessons  learned.  It  is  use- 
less to  expect  that  great  businesses  can  be  conducted  without 
a  great  mass  of  prescribed  routines  designed  for  the  greatest 
good  in  the  majority  of  cases.  But  it  is  true  that  the  necessary 
struggle  for  uniformity  and  system  has  involved  the  limita- 
tion of  individualism  to  standardized  types  to  an  extent  that 
raises  some  serious  questions. 

It  is  impossible  to  set  limits  to  the  advantages  which  may 
accrue  to  a  business  from  such  attributes  of  personality  among 
its  men  as  loyalty  and  enthusiasm,  and  yet  personality  cannot 
well  be  standardized.  Herein  the  employment  department  needs 
particularly  to  be  on  guard  in  its  own  work.  It  must  steer  between 
the  danger  of  following  the  foreman's  method  of  picking  men 
because  he  likes  their  looks  or  their  manners,  and  a  method 
so  systematized  and  impersonal  as  to  have  eliminated  all  in- 
dividualism. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  great  caution  is  needed  to  avoid 
blind  acceptance  of  methods  from  among  the  various  S3-stems 
evolved  by  the  less  careful  industrial  psychologists  or  advo- 
cates of  character  analysis.  Much  along  these  lines  has  been 
established  which  ought  to  be  known  and  utilized  to  reason- 
able extent  in  the  employment  office.  It  is  surely  true  that 
certain  physical  types  are  particularly  adapted  to  certain  forms 
of  manual  lalior;  it  is  as  true  that  certain  mental  types  have 
especial  aptitudes  which  ought  to  be  recognized  in  assigning 
them  to  work.  Experimental  psychology  has  taught  us  how 
to  determine  the  mental  defective  and  the  moron,  and  is 
capable  of  doing  far  more  for  us.  But  there  is  a  refinement  of 
system  proposed  by  some  that  is  neither  commercially  profit- 
able nor  ethically  sound,  in  that  on  the  one  hand,  at  large  ex- 
pense, it  attempts  the  standardization  of  personality,  and  on 
the  other,  it  accepts  unduly  a  theory  of  predestination  which 
would  largely  limit  the  opportunities  for  proving  individual 
worth. 

There  are,   however,  no  differences  of  opinion     concerning 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       IS3 

the  desirability  of  standardization  of  jobs.  This  is  not  prop- 
erly a  responsibility  of  the  employment  office,  but  knowledge 
of  what  the  respective  standards  are  is  one  of  its  vital  needs. 
If  the  data  have  not  been  gathered  and  made  available,  one  of 
the  most  essential  moves  for  the  employment  office  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  its  own  work  is  to  undertake  such  a  survey  of 
requirements  of  the  work  and  opportunities  for  the  workers 
in  the  respective  departments  and  sub-departments  as  brought 
together  will  give  a  composite  of  the  whole  plant.  Such  a 
survey  need  not  be  made  obtrusively  nor  need  it  become  a 
nuisance  to  department  executives.  It  will  necessarily  involve 
the  expenditure  of  considerable  time.  But  it  is  worth  while 
doing,  even  if  it  has  to  be  done  very  quietly  and  very  slowly, 
for  while  it  offers  the  most  fundamental  data  for  employment 
work,  it  likewise  often  shows  such  inconsistencies  in  practice 
that  a  company  can  markedly  raise  its  average  of  efficiency, 
if  only  it  brings  the  departments  of  lax  or  faulty  standards 
somewhat  up  towards  the  grades  of  those  which  are  being 
well  administered. 

Such  a  survey  in  its  elementary  form  should  show  at  least 
such  facts  concerning  the  respective  departments  as  preferred 
sources  of  supply  for  new  employes,  education  or  special 
training  required,  any  special  attributes  desired,  initial  wages 
paid,  opportunities  for  advancement  in  position  and  possible 
wage  increases,  working  conditions  and  working  hours,  and 
labour  turnover. 

The  term  "labor  turnover,"  which  has  recently  come  into 
general  use,  even  now  is  not  fully  understood  by  some,  and 
is  perhaps  best  described  by  the  more  brutal  phase  in  general 
use,  "hiring  and  firing."  The  annual  "hiring  and  firing"  fig- 
ures represent  the  percentage  of  labor  turnover.  For  in- 
stance, if  a  company  maintains  a  normal  labor  force  of  a 
thousand  people,  and  is  obliged  to  employ  annually  a  thousand 
to  compensate  for  those  who  leave  or  are  dismissed,  the  labor 
turnover  is   loo  per  cent. 

Probably  no  greater  argument  for  the  establishment  of  a 
functionalized  employment  department  in  many  companies 
could  be  made  than  to  induce  a  study  of  the  labor  turnover 
figures.  It  is  not  an  unusual  experience  to  find  employers  who 
estimate  the  figures  of  their  own  concerns  at  less  than  50  per 
cent,  when  it  actually  runs  to  several  times  that  figure. 


154  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  such  figures,  though  illuminating  in 
themselves,  need  further  analysis  to  be  of  major  use.  For 
instance,  seasonal  demands  may  be  such  in  the  specified  shop 
normally  enrolling  a  thousand  hands  that  two  hundred  must 
be  employed  periodically  for  a  few  weeks  and  then  dismissed, 
their  places  again  to  be  filled  in  a  few  more  weeks.  If  this 
happens  five  times  a  year,  the  turnover  figures  will  be  lOO  per 
cent.  The  other  extreme  would  be  a  concern  with  such  lack 
of  knowledge  of  the  money  loss  involved  in  change  that  prac- 
tically every  job  was  vacated  and  filled  at  least  annuallj',  when 
likewise  the  labor  turnover  would  be  lOO  per  cent.  Such  fig- 
ures are  much  too  high,  but  they  are  not  infrequent.  They 
likewise  are  expensive,  but  while  in  the  latter  case  the  concern 
in  question  would  bear  much  of  the  expense,  in  the  former 
it  is  more  largely  imposed  upon  the  community.  Working 
men  or  working  women  who,  through  no  fault  of  their  own, 
are  deprived  successively,  time  on  time,  of  the  opportunities  to 
realize  their  earning  capacities,  inevitably  suffer  impairment 
of  courage,  self-respect,  and  even  moral  fibre,  the  loss  of  which 
falls  first  upon  the  community,  but  eventually  upon  industry, 
in  the  depreciation  in  quality  and  spirit  of  the  labor  supply. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  know  what  can  be  done  to  re- 
move the  seasonal  element  in  employment  needs  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases.  On  the  other  hand,  much  would  be  gained  if, 
by  analysis  and  comparison,  foremen  and  sub-managers  could 
be  shown  the  futility  and  financial  loss  of  the  lack  of  compre- 
hension which  allows  them  to  discharge  carelessly  on  caprice, 
or  for  the  maintenance  of  that  perverted  sense  of  discipline 
which  they  phrase  as  "keeping  the  fear  of  God  in  the  hearts 
of  their  people." 

There  is  so  much  advantage  in  having  employes  who  know 
the  ways  and  routines  of  a  concern  that  it  would  seem  that, 
except  where  dismissals  are  for  sufficient  cause,  those  suf- 
fering them  would  be  preferred  applicants  for  positions  else- 
where in  the  company  calling  for  like  grade  of  ability.  It  is 
not  often  so,  nevertheless,  except  where  a  well-established  em- 
ployment office  or  its  equivalent  exists.  All  too  frequently, 
a  reduction  of  work  in  one  department  of  a  large  manufac- 
turing plant  will  send  workers  out  under  dismissal,  while 
some  other  department  of  the  same  plant  is  seeking  additional 
help. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       155 

A  rule  which  has  been  established  in  some  large  plants,  and 
which  has  worked  advantageously,  is  that  no  department  can 
discharge  an  individual  from  the  company's  employ;  it  can 
only  dismiss  from  its  own  work.  In  effect,  this  subjects  the 
case  to  review  of  some  higher  official  who  holds  the  power  of 
final  discharge,  gives  the  employment  office  a  chance  to  uti- 
lize the  experienced  employe  elsewhere,  if  of  proved  capacity, 
and  acts  as  a  healthy  check  on  the  impulsive  high-handedness 
of  certain  types  of  foremen  and  submanagers.  Another  rule 
which  works  to  somewhat  the  same  effect  is  to  require  ad- 
vance notices  to  be  filed  with  the  employment  office  concern- 
ing projected  dismissals,  together  with  the  reasons  therefor. 

Other  statistics  which  will  interest  the  progressive  em- 
ployer may  be  compiled,  showing  the  degree  of  permanency 
of  the  labor  force — thus,  the  percentages  showing  what  pro- 
portion of  the  total  enrollment  has  been  employed  less  than 
a  year,  what  proportion  for  between  one  and  two  years,  and 
so  on.  Not  infrequently  it  will  be  found  that  these  figures 
reveal  employment  conditions  quite  apart  from  the  theories 
of  the  head  of  the  house  and  contrary  to  his  belief  as  to  how 
his  business  is  being  run.  A  manufacturer  employing  about 
four  thousand  men  told  me  recently  that  he  had  genuinely  be- 
lieved that  a  large  proportion  of  his  men  had  been  with  him 
from  ten  to  twenty  years,  only  to  find  from  such  a  statistical 
table  that  50  per  cent  had  been  there  less  than  two  and  a  half 
years. 

Incidentally,  it  may  be  suggested  that  some  of  the  easy 
generalizations  which  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  in 
regard  to  the  lack  of  stability  of  workingmen  as  groups, 
because  of  the  presence  therein  of  so-called  "floaters,"  would 
be  materially  altered  if  it  could  be  known  to  what  extent  it 
had  been  beyond  the  volition  of  workmen  of  unquestioned 
skill  to  remain  permanently  placed.  In  general,  the  handling 
of  dismissals  has  been  dictated  by  the  intelligence  of  sub- 
executives  rather  than  by  the  intelligence  of  the  management, 
and  there  has  been  no  supervision   from   above. 

The  functionalized  employment  department  is  dependent, 
for  successful  accomplishment,  in  particularly  specific  ways 
upon  the  smoothness  with  which  its  work  can  be  made  to  ar- 
ticulate with  other  functionalized  departments,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the   accounting  department,   the   schedule  or   routing 


iS6  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

department,  and  other  like  ones.  It  must  rely  on  these  for 
the  data  to  prove  much  of  its  own  work,  and  in  turn  it  may  find 
within  its  perspective  facts  highly  important  to  them.  Through 
the  large  number  of  its  interviews,  it  should  come  to  have  an 
unusually  comprehensive  knowledge  of  current  rates  of  wages 
for  established  grades  of  work.  It  ought,  furthermore,  to 
come  into  position  to  know  to  what  extent  the  law  of  in- 
creasing returns  will  apply  to  additional  rates  of  pay  estab- 
lished to  secure   superior  ability. 

It  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  attention  of  indus- 
trial leaders  has  been  fixed  in  the  past  so  intently  on  problems 
of  power,  plants,  and  machines  that  so  little  practical  recog- 
nition has  been  given  to  the  fact  that  the  most  efficient  worker, 
even  at  considerably  increased  cost,  is  far  and  away  the  most 
profitable.  The  most  obvious  demonstration  of  this  exists 
perhaps  in  the  case  of  a  shop  filled  with  expensive  machinery 
working  to  full  capacity,  yet  with  its  production  falling  behind 
its  orders.  Would  there  be  any  hesitancy  if  its  management 
could  have  an  option  offered  between  added  efficiency  and  en- 
thusiasm among  its  employes  that  would  increase  its  poten- 
tiality a  half  through  the  enrollment  of  its  labor  force  on  the 
basis  of  capability  to  earn  a  largely  increased  wage,  and  the 
alternative  of  the  necessity  of  adding  50  per  cent  to  its  plant 
and  mechanical  equipment?  The  truth  is  that  seemingly  there 
is  not  yet  any  general  understanding  among  employers  that 
a  high  gross  payroll  does  not  necessarily  result  from  a  high 
individual  wage,  or  expressed  in  slightly  different  terms,  that 
the  cost  per  unit  of  production  may  be  larger  the  lower  the 
rate  of  pay  to  the  individual  worker. 

A  somewhat  analagous  principle  is  involved  in  the  matter 
of  working  hours  per  day.  The  old-time  practice  indicated  a 
theory  that  if  so  much  work  could  be  accomplished  by  a  work- 
ing-week of  sixty  hours,  20  per  cent  more  could  be  accomp- 
lished in  a  working  week  of  seventy-two  hours.  Reduce  these 
figures  to  fifty  hours  a  week  as  compared  to  sixty,  and  the 
theory  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  completely  discarded 
even  now.  Yet  the  facts  are  available  from  modern  investi- 
gations of  the  physical  and  nervous  reactions  from  fatigue, 
lack  of  variety  incident  to  refinement  of  methods  in  specializa- 
tion, and  want  of  time  for  recuperative  processes,  to  show 
that  up  to  some  definite  limit  actual  gross  production  may  in- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       157 

crease  under  reduction  of  hours ;  or  that  up  to  some  other 
Umit  a  much  larger  proportionate  production  per  hour  of  work 
may  be  secured.  Moreover,  these  arguments  have  been  prov- 
ed again  and  again  in  the  actual  operations  of  progressive 
companies. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  the  emploj^ment  department 
does  have  or  should  have  final  authority  to  govern  these 
poHcies  But  the  department  is  in  a  position  to  study  and 
compile  data  regarding  these  problems  as  very  few  other  de- 
partments can ;  and  either  in  initiating  or  contributing  to  in- 
vestigations of  all  such  matters  affecting  the  human  relations, 
it  has  opportunity  for  rendering  the  most  valuable  kind  of 
staff  service  to  the  general  administration  and  to  departments 
associated  with  itself. 

Industrial  efficiency,  with  all  its  vital  importance,  is  yet  a 
means  to  an  end,  and  not  the  end  itself.  It  is  the  quality  or 
manner  by  which  a  highly  desirable  result  is  to  be  accomp- 
lished, but  it  is  not  the  result.  It  has  too  often  happened  that 
an  earnest  advocate  of  efficient  methods  has  become  so  en- 
grossed in  the  technique  of  his  profession  as  to  ignore  its  pur- 
pose, to  the  consequent  detriment  of  the  general  cause. 

So  it  may  be  too  easily  with  functionalized  employment 
work.  An  office  may  be  set  up  under  the  direction  of  a  master 
of  system,  which  in  its  operation  shall  be  a  model  of  method. 
Interviewing  erf  applicants,  filling  out  of  skillfully  devised  ap- 
plication blanks  and  filing  them,  and  creation  of  numberless 
card  records  may  be  so  conducted  as  to  show  these  things  to 
have  been  reduced  to  an  exact  science,  and  yet  the  value  of 
the  department  remain  problematical. 

Of  course,  no  effort  must  be  spared  to  have  the  ways  de- 
vised by  which  the  best  possible  candidates  shall  be  offered 
and  chosen  for  the  respective  kinds  of  work.  But  the  work 
is  incomplete  if  it  stops  here.  The  good  of  the  business  is  the 
criterion  by  which  all  accomplishment  must  be  judged.  If  a 
high  grade  of  labor  has  been  secured,  the  company's  interests 
demand  that  the  environment,  the  conditions  and  the  oppor- 
tunities shall  be  made  such  as  to  hold  it.  The  employment 
department  cannot  omit  any  legitimate  effort  to  influence 
policies  to  this  end.  It  must  work  helpfully  and  understand- 
ingly  with  other  departments,  without  pride  or  arrogance.  But 
it  must  work  unceasingly  with  clear  vision  toward  the  goal  of 


158  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

making  its  distinct  contribution  to  the  company's  prosperity 
tliroiigh  the  improved  human  relationships  which  it  may  help 
to  develop. 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  EMPLOYMENT 
DEPARTMENT ' 

Introduction 

If  you  take  any  two  business  concerns  engaged  in  the  same 
industry  and  allow  to  both  the  same  mechanical  advantages  and 
the  same  proficiency  of  method  and  system,  the  larger  measure 
of  success  will  come  to  that  concern  which  had  advanced  further 
toward  the  intelligent  development  of  its  working  force.  It  is 
perhaps  natural  that  industry,  in  stud3'ing  out  ways  and  means 
to  expand  and  increase  its  powers,  should  first  bring  into  exis- 
tence machines  which  make  possible  the  multiplication  and  refine- 
ment of  its  product.  It  is  natural,  perhaps,  that  the  next  step 
should  be  the  perfecting  of  methods  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion to  the  end  of  eliminating  as  far  as  possible  all  waste  and 
lost  motion.  In  the  same  way  it  is  natural  that  industry,  having 
solved  these  two  problems  in  a  large  degree,  should  devote  its 
attention  to  the  development  of  the  workers  who  operate  these 
machines  and  systems,  and  on  whose  efficiency,  then,  the  effi- 
ciency of  these  machines  and  systems  depend.  It  is  with  this  in 
mind  that  we  have  come  together  at  this  conference  to  exchange 
ideas. 

Field  of  the  Department 

The  phrase  "employment  department"  is  a  misnomer  if  it  is 
permitted  to  convey  the  idea  of  a  department  maintained  merely 
to  keep  in  touch  with  the  labor  market  and  to  engage  employees. 
Its  function  is  infinitely  broader.  Summed  up  in  one  sentence, 
the  employment  department  is  the  department  whose  purpose  is 
to  develop  the  efficiency  of  the  workers,  directly  or  indirectly, 
and  to  bring  about  a  condition  in  which  the  individual  employee 
will  render  as  nearly  as  possible  lOO  per  cent  service  to  his  em- 
ployer. The  word  "employ,"  then,  should  signify  "continuous 
employment"  rather  than  the  act  of  engaging  a  worker  and  plac- 
ing him  on  the  pay  roll. 

»  By  R.  C.  Clothier,  Vice-President,  The  Scott  Co.,  Phila.  U.  S.  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.   192.  p.  7-14.     May,   1916. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       159 


Four  Divisions 

How,  then,  is  the  employment  department  to  proceed?  Into 
what  subordinate  functions  is  its  main  function  of  the  develop- 
ment of  personnel  divided?  There  are  four.  Allow  me  to  touch 
briefly  upon  these  subordinate  functions. 

Selection 

Of  course,  the  first  is  that  of  selection.  When  we  go  to  con- 
struct a  machine,  our  first  care  is  as  to  the  material  we  put  into 
it;  similarly  when  we  go  to  build  up  an  efficient  working  force, 
we  must  exercise  the  greatest  care  as  to  the  character  and  qual- 
ity of  the  units  which  are  to  comprise  it.  The  employment  de- 
partment must  naturally  keep  a  classified  record  of  applicants, 
so  that  when  vacancies  occur,  to  be  filled,  the  executive  in  charge 
of  engaging  employees  may  be  able  to  get  in  touch  with  proper 
material.  It  must  examine  applicants  carefully,  not  only  with 
respect  to  their  fitness  for  the  particular  tasks  they  are  to  per- 
form, but  with  respect  to  their  constitutional  ability  to  harmonize 
with  the  ideals  and  underljang  principles  of  the  company  they 
are  to  serve ;  they  must  be  capable  of  loyalty  as  well  as  efficiency. 
The  incoming  employee,  too,  must  be  physically  capable  of  per- 
forming the  duties  about  to  be  delegated  to  him.  Not  only  must 
he  be  muscularly  strong  enough  for  his  tasks,  but  he  must  be 
constitutionally  in  good  health,  and  he  must  of  course  be  free  from 
any  impairment  which  might  be  communicated  to  his  fellow 
workers.  For  the  medical  examination  of  new  employees,  a 
company  physician  should  be  in  attendance  under  the  direction 
of  the  employment  department.  . 

Instruction 

The  second  subordinate  function  of  the  employment  depart- 
ment is,  in  most  concerns,  that  of  instruction.  Instruction  is 
the  process  of  developing  a  new  employee  capable  of  delivering, 
perhaps,  10  per  cent  service  into  a  trained  worker  capable  of 
delivering  90  per  cent  service  or  better.  Methods  of  training 
differ  with  different  concerns.  Dififerent  kinds  of  work,  different 
kinds  of  organization,  demand  different  ways  of  conducting  in- 
struction work.     Some  concerns  find  it  best  to  maintain  schools 


i6o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

under  salaried  teachers  for  this  purpose;  such  schools  should, 
of  course,  be  under  the  direction  of  the  emploj'ment  department. 
Other  concerns  have  their  instruction  work  done  departmcntally 
by  persons  designated  to  that  task,  or  even  by  foremen  and  fel- 
low employees.  Where  the  instruction  work  is  done  in  this  way, 
the  employment  department  should  be  a  very  interested  party. 
It  should  either  exercise  direct  control  or  a  strong  advisory  in- 
fluence. 

Welfare 

The  third  subordinate  function  of  the  employment  depart- 
ment is  that  which  has  direct  reference  to  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  employee.  This  division  of  the  work  is  founded  on  the  cer- 
tainty that  an  employee  who  is  happy  and  satisfied  and  free  from 
anxiety,  and  who  works  under  favorable  physical  conditions,  will 
do  better  work  and  more  of  it  than  an  employee  who  is  dissatis- 
fied and  fearful  of  the  future,  and  who  does  his  work  in  an  un- 
favorable physical  environment.  For  want  of  a  better  name,  this 
division  of  the  work  is  called  "Welfare  work,"  a  phrase  which 
has  fallen  into  some  disrepute  because  those  in  charge  of  wel- 
fare in  many  establishments  have  let  their  hearts  lead  them 
astray,  and  because  through  lack  of  tact  and  judgment,  welfare 
work  in  certain  quarters  has  been  permitted  to  be  interpreted  by 
the  employees  themselves  as  touching  on   altruism  and  charity. 

Welfare  work  is  not  altruism;  it  is  not  charity.  Industry 
now  regards  personnel  as  one  of  the  big  factors  to  be  considered 
in  every  undertaking,  and  if  this  is  so,  then  the  work  of  the 
welfare  department  is  an  economic  necessity.  But  this  work 
must  be  conducted  along  economic  lines,  as  every  other  depart- 
ment is  conducted;  every  dollar  spent  on  it  must  yield  lOO  cents 
in  return.  It  must  be  thoroughly  leavened  with  good,  hard, 
common  sense. 

The  employment  department,  through  its  welfare  division, 
should  give  constant  attention  to  such  things  as  light,  air,  san- 
itary arrangements,  and  elevator  service.  It  is  not  reasonable  to 
expect  an  employee  to  reach  his  or  her  place  of  work  in  the 
establishment  in  the  right  frame  of  mind  to  tackle  the  day's 
work  with  eagerness,  if  he  has  to  pass  through  the  gamut  of 
damp,  dark,  and  congested  locker  rooms,  and  either  climb  several 
flights  of  stairs  or  wait  his  turn  to  get  on  the  elevator  together 
with  a  crowd  of  fellow  workers,  all  as  vexed  as  he.     It  is  not 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       i6i 

reasonable  to  expect  him  to  display  interest  in  the  company  as  a 
whole  if  his  employers  fail  to  regard  him  in  measure  as  a  part- 
ner— as  he  really  is — and  to  provide  for  his  physical  comfort 
and  convenience  accordingly.  To  bring  the  individual  employee 
to  the  frame  of  mind  where  he  is  able  to  deliver  efficient  service, 
it  is  axiomatic  that  the  employer,  through  the  employment  de- 
partment, should  arrange  for  those  physical  surroundings  which 
will  breed  self-respect  as  well  as  a  spirit  of  satisfaction. 

Under  the  welfare  division  of  the  employment  department, 
restaurants  should  be  maintained  for  the  use  of  the  employees, 
where  good  food  can  be  procured  at  minimum  prices.  If  this  is 
not  feasible,  encouragement  should  at  least  be  given  to  some 
reputable  caterer  to  maintain  a  good,  low-price  restaurant  in  the 
immediate  vicinity.  The  former  plan,  however,  is  infinitely  the 
better.  Good  food  makes  for  good  health,  especially  when 
served  under  agreeable  conditions — a  combination  that  is  infre- 
quently found  in  low-price  restaurants.  Then  again,  at  the 
lunch  hour  the  employees  meet  as  men  and  talk  as  men ;  it  is 
the  time  when  opinions  are  formed,  friendships  made,  and  esprit 
de  corps  developed. 

After  these  fundamental  and  immediate  welfare  needs  are 
satisfied,  the  employment  department  should  devote  its  energies 
to  the  development  of  an  adequate  beneficial  association  for  the 
protection  of  those  employees  who  are  taken  sick.  A  staff  of 
woman  visitors  should  regularly  call  at  the  homes  of  employees 
who  are  absent  owing  to  illness,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  assisting 
them  in  any  reasonable  way  and  expressing  the  company's  inter- 
est in  them.  This  work  requires  tact  and  judgment,  for  any 
careless  phrase  interpreted  by  the  sick  employee  as  savoring  of 
charity  will  be  resented,  and  any  possible  suggestion  that  the 
visit  is  really  a  pretext  for  detective  work  in  the  home  will 
arouse  suspicion  of  the  sincerity  of  the  company's  motives  and 
alienate  the  worker's  loyalty  and  enthusiasm. 

And  in  addition  the  welfare  division  should  provide  for  a 
sound  pension  system  for  the  benefit  of  the  superannuated  em- 
ployees who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  company  and  have 
grown  old  in  its  service. 

And  when  these  matters,  which  are  fundamental  but  not  nec- 
essarily immediate,  have  been  adjusted,  then  the  employment 
department  is  at  liberty,  through  its  welfare  division,  to  promote 
other  but  less  requisite  enterprises  for  the  benefit  of  the  workers, 


i62  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

such  as  employees'  clubs,  savings  funds  and  social  meetings,  all 
of  which  contribute  to  a  favorable  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part 
of  the  employees. 

Medical 

The  fourth  subdivision  of  the  work  of  the  employment  de- 
partment is  one  I  have  already  touched  on  in  discussing  the  ex- 
amination of  applicants;  that  is,  the  medical  work.  Every  large 
company  should  have  the  services  of  a  physician,  either  all-time 
or  part-time,  which  should  be  supplemented  by  adequate,  if  not 
elaborate,  hospital  facilities.  In  addition  to  examining  new  em- 
ployees, the  physician  should  periodically  examine  all  employees 
on  the  pay  roll,  say  every  six  months,  as  a  preventive  measure. 
A  timely  examination  may  frequently  free  an  employee  from 
the  necessity  of  later  giving  up  his  position,  and  may  save  his 
employer  the  cost  and  loss  of  getting  a  new  employee  in  his 
place.  Two  hospitals  should  be  maintained,  even  if  very  small — 
one  for  men  employees  and  one  for  women  employees.  At  least 
one  orderly  and  nurse  should  be  in  constant  attendance,  to  give 
attention  to  employees  who  are  taken  sick  and  to  treat  emer- 
gency cases. 

Summary  of  Functions 

I  have  skeletonized  thus  the  direct  functions  of  the  employ- 
ment department  by  classifj-ing  them  as  first,  selective  (the  func- 
tion of  engaging  emploj^ees),  instruction  (the  function  of  de- 
veloping their  efficiency  for  their  particular  tasks),  welfare  (the 
function  of  creating  a  favorable  mental  background  for  their 
work),  and  medical  (the  function  of  protecting  their  physical 
health). 

Industry  is  coming  to  recognize  the  need  for  such  a  depart- 
ment to  supervise  its  personnel,  yet  individual  executives,  even 
within  the  concerns  which  are  most  farseeing,  fail  to  appreciate 
the  full  need  for  and  opportunity  of  the  employment  depart- 
ment. For  this  reason  the  employment  department  should  oc- 
cupy an  unique  position  in  the  business  organization ;  the  man- 
ager of  the  employment  department  should  be  in  touch  with  the 
supreme  authority  in  the  organization,  in  order  that  the  depart- 
ment policies  may  receive  first-hand  and  final  corroboration  in 
case  it  is  needed.    But  because  its  value  is  not  as  yet  convincingly 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  163 

impressed  upon  the  average  department  executives,  whom  it  is 
intended  to  serve,  such  final  support  from  the  powers  that  be 
should  be  invoked  only  when  absolutely  necessary.  In  short, 
the  employment  department  should  win  cooperation  of  the  execu- 
tives with  whom  it  works,  not  through  arbitrary  legislation  from 
above,  but  through  actual  service  rendered  to  those  executives. 
To  render  such  actual  service  to  these  executives  the  manager  of 
the  employment  department  (and  his  assistants)  should  be 
capable  of  seeing  all  sides  of  every  question  that  arises;  he 
should  get  the  other  man's  point  of  view ;  he  should  get  down  to 
a  basis  of  departmental  and  personal  friendliness  with  him  and 
work  out  the  solution  to  his  satisfaction.  Interdepartmental 
antagonism  must  be  done  away  with.  Personal  dislike  must  be 
forgotten.  When,  by  such  a  policy,  the  employment  department 
wins  the  esteem  and  friendship  of  the  operating  departments,  its 
position  in  the  organization  will  be  ten  times  as  strong  as  if  it 
attempts  to  force  recognition  for  itself  through  edict  from  the 
general  manager's  office. 

So  much  for  the  organization  of  the  employment  department, 
its  place  in  the  company,  and  its  relations  with  the  operating  de- 
partments.    What  policies  should  it  pursue? 

Labor  Turnover 

Immediately  there  presents  itself  for  consideration  the  prob- 
lem of  the  labor  turnover,  a  source  of  loss  and  inefficiency  and 
industrial  hardship  which  business,  until  comparatively  recently, 
has  completely  overlooked.  Labor  turnover  is,  briefly,  the  pro- 
portion of  the  number  of  employees  engaged  in  a  year  to  the 
total  number  of  employees  on  the  pay  roll.  If  a  concern  has  500 
persons  on  its  pay  roll  and  in  a  certain  year  500  persons  must  be 
engaged  to  maintain  that  pay  roll  at  500,  the  labor  turnover  is 
100  per  cent;  if  it  is  necessary  to  engage  only  250  to  maintain 
the  pay  roll,  the  labor  turnover  is  50  per  cent.  The  formula  is 
complicated  slightly  if  the  size  of  the  pay  roll  increases  or  de- 
creases during  the  year  and  again  if  the  necessary  hirings  are 
differentiated  from  the  unnecessary  hirings.  But,  broadly 
speaking,  turnover  is  the  proportion  of  employees  hired  to  the 
total  pay  roll. 

It  should  be  the  duty  of  the  emploj^ment  department  to  reduce 
unwholesome  labor  turnover  by  every  means  at  its  command.    In 


i64  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

fact,  the  ultimate  efiiciency  of  the  employment  department  can 
largely  be  gauged  by  the  trend  in  the  turnover  figures.  In  addition 
to  the  contributing  effect  a  high  labor  turnover  has  upon  general 
industrial  conditions,  which  in  turn  react  upon  the  company, 
there  is  a  very  immediate  significance  in  a  high  labor  turnover 
which  can  be  measured  in  dollars  and  cents.  The  cost  of  hiring 
and  firing  an  ordinary  clerk  or  workman  is  variously  estimated 
in  different  concerns  at  from  $25  to  $200.  This  represents  the 
cost  of  hiring,  the  cost  of  the  breaking-in  process,  the  cost  of 
material  wasted  and  spoiled,  the  disorganizing  effect  upon  the 
immediate  department,  and  the  cost  of  reduced  output  during 
the  early  days  of  the  new  employee's  service.  If  the  average 
cost  is  $100  per  employee,  it  requires  no  genius  to  ascertain  the 
cost  per  year  to  a  concern  with  1,000  employees  which  has  a 
labor  turnover  of  100  per  cent. 

Methods  of  Reduction 

What  are  the  methods  by  which  the  employment  department 
can  reduce  the  labor  turnover?  First,  of  course,  by  intelligent 
selection.  Second,  by  intelligent  instruction  work  so  that  the 
employee  will  not  fail  to  make  good  through  inadequate  prepara- 
tion for  his  tasks.  Third,  by  creating  in  him  a  satisfied  spirit  as 
far  as  welfare  work,  properly  conducted,  can  do  it.  Fourth,  by 
developing  the  policy  throughout  the  organization  of  filling 
vacancies  from  within  and  giving  the  employees  the  opportunity 
to  advance  to  positions  of  greater  responsibility  and  compensa- 
tion as  fast  as  their  ability  warrants  it.  Fifth,  by  reducing  as 
far  as  possible  the  number  of  arbitrary  dismissals.  Sixth,  by 
working  with  the  administrative  officials  of  the  company  to 
standardize  the  rate  of  production,  either  by  manufacturing  for 
stock  when  possible  instead  of  on  order,  or  in  rearranging  the 
schedule  of  production  in  such  a  way  that  the  average  output 
(and  consequently,  the  working  force)  will  remain  uniform. 
Seventh,  by  acting  as  a  clearing  house  for  labor  between  the 
various  operating  departments,  in  order  to  prevent  one  depart- 
ment from  discharging  help  because  of  slack  work,  while  an- 
other department  is  adding  to  its  force.  In  its  capacity  as  clear- 
ing house,  too,  the  employment  department  can  place  elsewhere 
in  the  organization  employees  who  fail  to  make  good  where  first 
assigned;  there  are  such  things  as  square  pegs  and  round  holes. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       165 

and  many  an  employee  who  fails  miserably  at  one  task  may  suc- 
ceed markedly  at  another. 


Personal  Relations 

Now  for  another  function  of  the  employment  department. 
The  strictly  military  form  of  organization  is  coming  under  the 
microscope  and  flaws  are  being  discovered.  Industry  is  coming 
to  see  that  the  executive  who  says,  "do  this,"  to  his  subordinates, 
and  who  fails  to  help  them  by  advice  and  personal  assistance  is 
not  as  valuable  as  the  executive  who  regards  it  as  his  first  duty 
to  aid  his  workmen.  The  executive  is  not  to  command,  but  to 
assist.  And  the  business  organization  which  is  permeated  with 
this  spirit  of  cooperation  between  boss  and  worker  is  certain  to 
possess  a  higher  degree  of  human  efficiency  than  the  business 
which  is  built  along  the  old-time  military  lines. 

The  employment  department  should  aid  and  foster  the  de- 
velopment of  this  spirit,  both  through  the  personal  efforts  of  its 
manager  and  his  assistants  and  in  the  adoption  of  departmental 
policies  which  work  to  that  end. 

Centralised  Discharge 

This  touches  closely  the  question  of  discharge.  The  fear  of 
peremptory  discharge  is  often  the  cause  of  vitiated  efiiciency  on 
the  part  of  the  employee.  Fear  and  enthusiasm  can  not  reside 
side  by  side  in  the  same  individual's  mind.  The  theory  of  the 
old  military  system  is,  too  frequently,  to  fire  a  number  of  work- 
ers occasionally  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  keeping  the  fear  of 
God  in  the  hearts  of  the  others ;  it  fails  entirely  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  fact  that  such  a  policy,  while  doubtless  compelling 
sullen  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  individual,  lowers  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  force  as  a  whole  and  increases  directly  the  labor 
turnover. 

Ultimate  discharge  from  the  company  should  take  place  only 
through  the  employment  department,  which  should  analyze  the 
reasons  for  discharge  in  each  case  and  give  the  discharged  em- 
ployee a  chance  to  state  his  side  of  the  case.  Too  often,  under 
the  military  system  of  organization,  workers  are  discharged  for 
some  superficial  reason  or  through  the  whim  of  their  superiors. 
Too   frequently  we  condemn,   unheard.     This  tendency  can   be 


i66  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

curbed  and  the  problem  of  the  square  pegs  and  round  holes 
solved  through  the  centralizing  of  the  function  of  discharge  in 
the  employment  department.  It  will  doubtless  prove  illuminating 
in  most  companies  to  classify  the  cases  of  discharged  employees 
by  causes  and  departments.  Such  a  comparative  classification 
would  be  certain  to  have  a  wholesome  effect  upon  the  minds  of 
the  executives  who  habitually  discharge  without  good  reason,  and 
tend  to  demonstrate  that  a  large  departmental  labor  turnover 
reflects  seriously  upon  their  individual  abilities. 

A  Service  Department 

In  closing,  let  me  point  out  that  by  the  very  nature  of  its 
field  the  employment  department  must  be  a  service  department. 
It  is  not  an  operating  department,  but  it  should  work  hand  in 
glove  with  the  operating  departments,  helping  them  in  a  gen- 
uinely sincere  way  to  increase  their  own  efficiency  through  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  of  their  employees.  It  should  not  seek 
credit  for  what  it  does,  only  results — on  which  in  the  end  it 
must  stand  or  fall.  The  means  should  always  be  sacrificed  to 
the  end;  many  of  its  achievements  for  the  improvement  of  the 
working  force  must  be  accomplished  indirectly  by  counsel  and 
advice,  and  the  credit,  oftentimes,  must  go  elsewhere.  But  that, 
of  course,  is  of  minor  significance.  If,  by  its  activity,  either 
direct  or  indirect,  there  results  permanent  economic  advantage 
to  the  company  through  the  improvement  of  its  human  relation- 
ships, the  employment  department  will  take  its  place  in  the  or- 
ganization as  one  of  the  productive  departments. 


THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  SCOPE  OF  THE 
EMPLOYMENT   DEPARTMENT' 

Introduction 

The  following  paper  is  an  elaboration,  or,  more  correctly 
speaking,  an  exposition  of  an  outline  submitted  to  the  employ- 
ment managers'  group  of  the  industrial  management  council  of 
the  Rochester  Chamber  of  Commerce  at  its  meeting  on  Febru- 

'  By  N.  D.  Hubbell.  Employment  Manager,  General  Railway  Signal 
Co.,  Rochester,  N.  Y.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  227,  p.  gr- 
in.    October,    1917. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       167 

ary  20,  1917.  The  purpose  in  trying  to  cover  the  whole  field  in 
one  paper  is  not  to  put  forth  a  set  of  conclusions  which  would 
tend  to  close  specific  subjects  and  render  discussions  of  them  un- 
necessary, but  rather  to  coordinate  these  same  subjects  so  that 
we  can  see  at  a  glance  their  relation  to  the  whole  scheme  and 
rate  them  in  importance  accordingly.  It  will  also  serve  as  a 
tangible  basis  for  consideration  by  a  plant  just  starting  or  con- 
sidering the  starting  of  an  employment  department,  since  it  sug- 
gests in  concise  and  coordinated  form  what  functions  might  be 
covered.  The  points  raised  here  pertain  almost  wholly  to  ac- 
tivities connected  directly  with  employing.  No  effort  has  been 
made  to  take  up  the  subject  of  welfare  or  service  work  because 
this  subject  in  itself  furnishes  material  for  several  separate  pa- 
pers. 

With  this  viewpoint  in  mind  let  us  take  up  the  organization 
and  scope  of  the  employment  department  proper. 

Responsibility 

Probably  the  first  question  in  connection  with  an  employment 
department  is  "To  whom  should  the  employment  manager  be 
responsible?"  It  is  now  pretty  well  agreed  that  he  should  be 
directly  responsible  to  the  manager  and  answerable  to  him  alone. 
Of  course  titles  of  executives  vary  in  different  organizations, 
but  the  point  here  is,  that  the  employment  manager  should  come 
directly  under  the  highest  executive  immediately  responsible  for 
all  phases  of  manufacture.  He  may  be  called  the  general  man- 
ager, manager,  factory  manager,  works  manager,  general  sup- 
erintendent, or  any  one  of  several  other  titles.  This  brings  the 
employment  manager  coordinate  with  the  production  and  me- 
chanical superintendents,  also  the  heads  of  the  inspection,  engi- 
neering, and  any  other  departments  of  similar  rank,  depending 
on  the  type  of  organization.  Although  the  employment  man- 
ager must  be  primarily  an  executive,  his  position  is  largely  that 
of  a  staff  man,  and  his  dealings  with  the  manager  will  be,  to  a 
great  extent,  in  an  advisory  capacity  on  all  matters  pertaining 
to  the  policies  of  the  company  affecting  the  relations  between 
employer  and  employee.  Being  coordinate  with  the  superinten- 
dents responsible  for  the  conduct  of  labor  coming  under  their 
supervision,  he  is  able  to  act  as  a  check  on  the  interpretation 
of  the  company's  policies  as  administered  to  employees  by  their 


i68  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

superiors.  Tliis,  of  course,  places  him  in  the  position  of  judge 
in  the  court  of  appeals,  on  questions  involving  the  relations  be- 
tween management  and  employee. 


Establishing    An    Employment    Department 

The  mere  signing  of  an  order  does  not  establish  an  employ- 
ment department,  but  the  authorization  and  backing  by  the  man- 
agement are  absolutely  essential.  Assuming  that  these  are 
granted,  the  establishing  of  the  department  is  a  slow,  gradual 
process.  It  requires  time  and  ceaseless  diplomacy,  energy-,  per- 
severance, and  patience  on  the  part  of  the  employment  manager 
in  educating  and  gaining  the  confidence  of  the  foremen.  The 
fact  that  he  is  organizing  an  employment  department  will  prej- 
udice most  of  the  foremen  against  him  because  they  feel  that 
he  is  trjang  to  take  some  of  their  authority  away  from  them. 
The  employment  manager  must  size  up  each  individual  foreman 
and  study  his  personality  to  learn  the  best  way  to  approach  and 
work  with  him.  It  is  also  very  necessary  to  make  the  foremen 
feel  that  the  employment  department  is  being  established  to  help 
them,  and  to  explain  thoroughly  how  it  will  accomplish  this. 
He  should  listen  carefully  to  any  idea  the  foremen  may  have  on 
employment  department  work,  and  wherever  possible  should  in- 
corporate their  suggestions.  Above  all  else,  he  should  aim  not 
to  antagonize  the  foremen  and  should  always  deal  with  them  in 
a  frank,  straightforward,  open  manner,  giving  them  no  occa- 
sion to  feel  that  anything  is  being  "slipped  over"  on  them. 
When  once  the  foremen  realize  that  he  is  working  for  their  in- 
terests and  is  always  willing  and  glad  to  cooperate  with  them 
on  any  phases  of  the  work  where  they  are  mutually  concerned, 
he  will  have  little  difficulty  in  getting  a  fair  trial  for  any  plan  he 
may  wish  to  put  across.  Another  very  important  part  of  this 
missionary  work  is  in  gaining  a  general  working  knowledge  of 
all  operations  and  getting  the  foremen's  ideas  on  what  types  of 
men  they  want  for  them.  This  is  laying  the  foundations  for 
standard  specifications  later  on.  The  employment  manager 
must  be  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  a  thirty-third  degree  diplo- 
mat. He  must  put  in  operation  one  thing  at  a  time  and  be  sure 
that  everything  else  in  operation  is  working  out  satisfactory  be- 
fore starting  anything  else. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  169 


Scope   of  The  Employment  Department 

Although  the  employment  department  deals  primarily  with 
hiring,  its  scope  should  by  no  means  be  limited  to  securing  help. 
In  the  more  progressive  concerns  the  following  up  of  employees 
and  acting  as  a  point  of  contact  between  the  management  and 
emploj'ee  is  just  as  important,  if  not  more  so.  This  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  title  "supervisor  of  personnel"  is  now  be- 
ing widely  used  instead  of  "employment  manager."  At  any 
rate,  the  function  of  the  employment  department  is  to — 

Build  up  a  list  of  applicants  available.- — The  extent  of  this 
list  will  depend  upon  the  conditions  of  the  labor  market.  Some 
concerns  do  not  put  on  file  any  applications  which  can  not  be 
used  at  the  time,  while  some  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  hire 
only  from  applications  on  the  shelf.  Under  present  conditions 
it  can  not  be  assumed  that  an  application  will  be  good  for  very 
long  unless  the  concern  has  such  a  good  name  that  men  will  leave 
others  to  accept  positions  with  it.  However,  there  is  little  doubt 
concerning  the  advisability  of  putting  on  file  applications  of  de- 
sirable workmen  who  apply  at  a  time  when  they  can  not  be 
placed.  This  makes  it  unnecessary  to  depend  entirely  on  men 
applj-ing  at  the  office,  because  this  is  a  very  uncertain  quantity, 
and  repeaters  at  the  office  do  not  represent  the  best  class  of 
workmen,  especially  on  skilled  work.  The  man  wanted  is  gen- 
erally not  there  when  needed.  Very  often  the  opening  will  oc- 
cur within  a  short  time,  and  as  a  general  rule  part  of  those  sent 
for  will  come  in.  Applicants  can  be  encouraged  to  call  up  oc- 
casionally, or  even  to  advise  if  they  have  accepted  other  po- 
sitions and  whether  or  not  they  still  want  to  be  considered  as 
available.  Putting  applications  on  file,  provided  a  reasonable 
number  are  sent  for.  Is  sure  to  have  a  desirable  effect  on  work- 
men in  the  locality,  for  it  shows  a  personal  interest  which  is 
appreciated,  because  they  feel  that  this  same  interest  will  ex- 
tend to  men  in  the  employ. 

This  file  should  include  desirable  applications  selected  from — 
(o)  Those  applying  at  the  employment  office:  These  re- 
quire a  great  deal  of  weeding  out,  because  this  class  does  not 
represent,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  best  type  of  workmen. 
However,  it  is  essential  to  have  men  applying  at  the  office,  and 
the  aim  should  be  to  raise  the  standard  of  this  class  as  much 


170  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

as  possible  by  encouraging  desirable  men  to  return  and  tactfully 
tending  to  discourage  those  not  desirable.  This  class  of  appli- 
cant is  indispensable  for  filling  positions  in  a  hurry.  Many  good 
men  can  be  secured  on  short  notice,  because  they  are  most  of 
them  out  of  work  when  they  apply. 

(b)  Those  recommended  by  employees:  This  class  is 
probably  the  most  desirable  when  once  properly  placed,  because 
they  have  friends  in  the  organization  who  will  introduce  them 
and  make  then  feel  more  at  home  during  the  first  few  days, 
which  are  the  hardest.  They  will  also  have  ties  which  will  tend 
to  hold  them,  once  they  are  hired,  because  they  will  feel  tmder 
obligation  to  make  good  for  the  sake  of  the  men  who  recom- 
mended them.  In  order  to  carry  this  out  successfully,  however, 
it  is  necessary  to  make  an  employee  feel  at  the  time  he  recom- 
mends a  man  that  he  is  to  a  large  extent  assuming  the  respon- 
sibility of  his  being  a  desirable  character  and  capable  of  making 
good.  He  should  be  informed  if  the  man  does  not  come  up  to 
expectations.  An  employee  should  recommend  an  applicant  by 
talking  the  matter  over  with  the  employment  manager.  If  it 
seems  advisable  to  interview  him,  the  employee  should  be  given 
a  form  to  fill  out  and  sign,  vouching  for  him.  This  slip  when 
presented  by  the  applicant  will  serve  as  an  introduction  to  the 
employment  manager. 

(c)  Those  obtained  by  scouting;  This  class  represents 
largely  men  whose  names  have  been  obtained  in  connection  with 
some  specific  opening.  By  scouting  is  meant  any  means  of  still 
hunt,  such  as  getting  in  touch  with  workmen,  other  employment 
managers,  schools,  or  any  other  sources  which  might  be  able 
to  suggest  capable  men. 

(d)  Those  obtained  by  advertising:  Advertising  is,  of  course, 
a  last  resort  but  is  nevertheless  necessary  at  times.  "Blind  ads" 
should  be  used  only  when  absolutely  necessary.  Ads  over  the 
company  name  are  much  quicker  and  should  be  used  except 
where  a  responsible  position  is  to  be  filled  or  where  a  replace- 
ment is  to  be  made  which  should  be  kept  secret  and  might  be 
"given  away"  by  the  ad.  The  custom  of  running  blind  ads  to  test 
the  loyalty  of  employees  should  be  discouraged,  because  it 
savors  strongly  of  underhand  methods. 

(e)  Those  obtained  by  other  means:  This  includes  men 
recommended  voluntarily  by  outside  sources,  private  individuals, 
public,  fraternal,  or  other  employment  agencies  charging  no  fees, 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       171 

schools,  or  any  organizations  capable  of  supplying  the  right 
class  of  men.  These  sources  should  be  encouraged,  but  at  the 
same  time  educated  as  to  the  class  of  men  acceptable.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule  it  is  not  very  satisfactory  to  take  men  from  private 
agencies  charging  a  fee.  The  employment  manager  is  laying 
himself  open  to  the  charge  of  being  in  league  with  private 
agencies,  and  although  his  intentions  are  of  the  best  he  is  often 
misunderstood.  From  the  applicant's  standpoint  he  has  bought 
his  job  and  this  obviously  is  undesirable. 

Select  the  best  talent  available  for  positions  open. — This  im- 
mediately brings  up  the  point  of  where  the  power  of  hiring 
should  be  placed.  The  old  idea  is  that  the  foreman  has  abso- 
lute power  of  hiring.  There  is  now  in  successful  operation  in 
many  plants  the  other  extreme,  viz,  the  employment  manager 
has  the  absolute  power  of  hiring  and  the  foreman  can  not  re- 
ject except  after  giving  the  new  employee  a  fair  trial.  Although 
the  latter  may  come  in  time  to  be  the  prevailing  practice,  few 
employment  departments  are  well  enough  established  to  carry  it 
out  satisfactorily  now,  even  if  the  power  were  delegated  to 
them.  For  a  workable  scheme,  then,  let  us  make  a  compromise. 
Let  the  employment  manager  hire,  unless  for  certain  work  the 
foreman  expresses  on  his  requisition  for  help  a  desire  to  see  the 
applicant  before  he  is  engaged.  This  will  have  a  tendency  to 
shift  gradually  the  responsibility  for  hiring  over  onto  the 
shoulders  of  the  employment  manager  as  he  comes  to  under- 
stand more  fully  what  the  foreman  wants,  and  the  foreman 
comes  to  put  more  confidence  in  the  selection  of  the  employ- 
ment manager.  The  abilitj^  and  knowledge  to  select  compe- 
tently come  only  after  considerable  preliminary  work  has  been 
gone  through.     They  involve — 

(a)  Information  in  advance  as  to  vacancies:  This  is  one 
of  the  worst  features  of  modern  conditions.  Workmen  must 
be  educated  to  give  sufficient  notice  of  leaving  and  foremen 
must  notify  the  employment  department  immediately  when  such 
notice  is  given,  thus  allowing  as  much  time  as  possible  for  se- 
curing people  to  fill  the  positions.  This  education  oi  the  work- 
man involves,  in  addition  to  making  him  realize  the  fairness  of 
it — (i)  a  system  for  paying  off  in  full,  when  they  leave,  those 
who  give  sufficient  notice;  (2)  having  an  understanding  that 
leaving  without  notice  must  be  counted  against  his  record 
should  he  ever  want  a  reference  from  the  company;   (3)  check- 


172  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ing  up  a  previous  record  of  employment  to  see  if  he  has  quit 
without  notice;  and  (4)  it  also  involves,  on  the  part  of  the  em- 
ployer, giving  notice  when  letting  a  man  out,  except  in  cases  of 
discharge  for  insubordination,  malicious  conduct,  and  the  like. 
The  case  of  a  conscientious  workman  not  making  good  will  be 
taken  up  under  another  heading. 

{b)  A  thorough  knowledge  of  what  material  is  available: 
This  includes,  in  addition  to  applications  on  the  shelf,  a  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  of  the  labor  market  in  the  locality,  and  any 
strikes,  layoffs,  and  other  conditions  affecting  it. 

(c)  A  close  personal  contact  with  foremen:  This  has 
been  touched  upon  before  as  part  of  the  missionary  work.  It 
is  simply  getting  around  the  shop  as  often  as  time  permits  and 
keeping  in  touch  with  the  foremen  regarding  their  wants  and 
what  is  available. 

(d)  A  general  working  knowledge  of  all  operations  per- 
formed :  From  personal  observation  and  talks  with  the  fore- 
men a  general  knowledge  of  the  work  can  be  acquired. 

(e)  Standard  specifications  for  all  classes  of  help  used: 
Standard  specifications  would  be  an  outgrowth  of  contact  with 
the  foreman  and  would  involve  a  knowledge  of  the  operations 
and  the  corresponding  kinds  of  help  preferred.  These  should  be 
reduced  to  writing  and  approved  by  the  foreman  and  employ- 
ment manager. 

(/)  Knowledge  of  rates  and  earnings :  It  is  necessary  for 
the  employment  manager  to  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  rates 
paid  for  all  classes  of  work.  This  should  include  day  rates  and 
a  general  knowledge  of  average  earnings  on  piecework  in  the 
plant  and  as  much  of  this  information  as  can  be  gained  per- 
taining to  other  plants  in  the  locality. 

(g)  Investigation  of  applicant's  record:  Proper  coopera- 
tion on  the  part  of  employment  managers  on  the  matter  of  ref- 
erences will  enable  them  to  weed  out  many  of  the  undesirables. 
It  is  largely  a  matter  of  the  employment  department  having 
sufficient  data  to  give  an  intelligent  and  comprehensive  record 
of  the  man. 

(h)  Physical  examination  of  applicants:  Many  of  the 
larger  and  more  progressive  concerns  are  now  insisting  upon  a 
physical  examination  of  new  employees  before  starting  work. 
In  many  cases  it  is  the  outcome  of  rigid  accident  compensation 
laws,  but   from  the  purely  business   standpoint  doctor's   exam- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       173 

inations  are  a  good  proposition.  They  are  so  common  now  that 
very  few  appHcants  object  to  them.  A  comprehensive  employ- 
ment is  not  complete  without  them. 

(i)  Character  analysis :  Opinions  of  employment  men  vary 
as  to  the  value  of  scientific  selection  and  character  analysis,  but 
there  is  without  doubt  something  in  the  science  which  would 
be  of  value  to  most  employment  men.  It  is  for  each  to  use  as 
much  of  the  science  as  his  experience  justifies. 

(/)  Testing  out  applicant  for  certain  work:  Many  con- 
cerns are  finding  it  advantageous  in  some  cases  to  take  the  ap- 
plicant to  the  department  and  give  him  a  superficial  try  out. 
This  is  of  special  value  in  the  case  of  operators  for  special  and 
automatic  machines  where  a  minute  or  two  at  the  machine  will 
prove  whether  or  not  the  applicant  is  familiar  with  it.  How- 
ever, this  should  be  discouraged  rather  than  encouraged. 

This  will  also  include  taking  the  applicant  into  the  factory 
to  see  working  conditions  in  certain  special  cases. 

Introduce  new  employees.^At  the  present  time  there  is  not 
enough  attention  paid  to  introducing  new  employees  into  the 
organization  properly.  If  an  applicant  has  been  accepted  it  is 
worth  while  to  start  at  once  to  make  him  feel  at  home.  The 
impressions  gained  during  the  first  few  days  stay  with  him  and 
a  little  personal  interest  at  the  start  helps  him  over  the  critical 
period.  Some  one  from  the  employment  office  should  take  him 
to  his  department  when  he  starts  and  the  introduction  should  in- 
clude : 

(a)  Introduction  to  foreman  and  fellow  employees:  If  he 
is  not  already  acquainted  with  the  foreman  he  should  be  intro- 
duced to  him  and  arrangements  should  be  made  for  him  to  be 
made  acquainted  with  fellow  employees. 

(b)  Explain  rules  and  policies  of  the  company:  The  most 
satisfactory  way  of  explaining  rules  and  policies  is  to  give  the 
new  man  a  brief,  concise  booklet,  and  supplement  it  with  a 
verbal  emphasis  on  important  points.  This  gives  him  an  op- 
portunity to  study  them  over  at  leisure,  and  not  rely  on  memory 
to  carry  all  the  details. 

(c)  Explain  location  and  use  of  hospital :  The  new  em- 
ployee should  be  shown  the  location  of  the  factory  medical  de- 
partment and  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  going  at  once  to 
the  hospital  in  case  of  any  injury,  no  matter  how  slight. 

(d)  Point   out  physical   surroundings:   General  lay   out  of 


174  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

buildings,  offices,  stock  and  tool  rooms,  lunch  room,  exists,  etc., 
should  be  pointed  out. 

(e)  Point  out  location  of  conveniences :  This  should  in- 
clude wash  room,  lockers  or  coat  rooms,  and  toilets  to  be  used 
in  the  department  to  which  he  is  assigned. 

Follow  tip  performance  of  employees. — By  taking  up  this 
function  the  employment  manager  is  taking  up  emploj'ment 
work  in  the  broader  sense.  This  phase  of  the  work  is,  never- 
theless, important,  because  by  following  up  the  performance  of 
all  employees,  especially  new  ones,  attention  is  called  to  "dead- 
wood,"  round  pegs  in  square  holes,  and  real  live  material  within 
the  organization.  It  also  acts  as  a  check  on  the  judgment  of 
the  man  doing  the  hiring  and  he  should  benefit  by  the  experience. 
This  follow  up  should  cover — 

(a)  General  conduct. 

(b)  Average    earnings. 

(c)  Lateness  and  absence. 

(d)  Health  and  accidents. 

(e)  Efficiency   rating  or  periodic  certifications  by   foreman 

covering  at  least — 

1.  Workmanship. 

2.  Reliability. 

3.  Willingness. 

4.  Attitude. 

5.  Industry. 

Render  final  decision  on  differences. — The  employment  man- 
ager should  render  final  decision,  subject  only  to  the  manager, 
on  all  differences  between  employees  and  superior  where  a 
satisfactory  agreement  can  not  be  reached  by  those  concerned. 
In  this  connection,  however,  an  effort  must  be  made  to  discour- 
age workmen  bringing  their  troubles  to  the  employment  depart- 
ment before  they  have  taken  the  matter  up  with  their  foremen. 
This  can  be  accomplished  by  sending  them  back  to  talk  it  over 
with  the  foreman  or  immediate  superior  first,  then  if  a  satis- 
factory agreement  can  not  be  reached,  it  will  logically  come 
back  to  the  employment  department  to  be  straightened  out. 
This  would  cover — 

(a)  Dissatisfaction  with  rates. 

1.  Daywork   rates. 

2.  Piecework  rates. 

(b)  Dissatisfaction   with   working  conditions. 

(c)  Alleged  unfairness  of  any  kind. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       175 

Render  final   decision    on   recommendation   for   discharge. — 
The  employment  manager  should  render  final  decision,  subject 
to  the  manager,  on  all  cases  of  discharge.     Unconditional  dis- 
charge should  be  a  serious  matter  and  should  be  used  only  as  a 
last   resort.     It   should    reflect   on   the   foreman   as  well    as   the 
man.     At  the  present  time  discharge  is  treated  too  lightly,  and 
the  authority  given  the   foreman  is  many  times  abused.       For 
this  reason  all  cases   should  be   subject  to   review   by  the   em- 
ployment manager  who  can,  by  getting  both  sides  of  the  story, 
together  with  his  records,  render  an  unbiased  decision.  A  fore- 
man should   have  the  privilege  of   saying  that  a  man  can   not 
work  in  his  department,  but  it  should  not  be  for  a  foreman  to 
say  that  a  man  can  not  work  in  the  plant  at  all.     This  should 
rest  with  someone  whose  responsibility  covers  the  entire  plant. 
Some  plants  have  gone  so  far  as  to  give  the  employment  man- 
ager the  power  to   force  a  foreman  to  take  back  a  workman, 
provided  conditions  indicate  that  the  foreman  is  in  the  wrong. 
However,  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  sending  back  to  a 
foreman  a  man  he  does  not  want.     He  can  easily  make  life  so 
miserable  for  the  man  that  he  will  be  glad  to  quit.     A  foreman 
should  have  the  privilege  of  returning  to  the  employment  depart- 
ment any  man  whom  he  does  not  want  in  his  department,  but 
it  should  be  up  to  the  employment  manager  to  say  whether  the 
man  deserves  unconditional  discharge  from  the  employ  of  the 
company  or  whether  he  should  be  given  a  chance  in  another  de- 
partment.    In  order  not  to  weaken  the  discipline  in  the  depart- 
ment, great  care  must  be  exercised  by  the  employment  manager 
in  handling  such  cases.     It  is  advisable  to  get  the  foreman's  sig- 
nature to  a  statement  as  to  whether  or  not  he  would  be  satis- 
fied to  have  the  man  transferred  to  another  department.       A 
negative    answer    to    this   question    should    be    substantiated    by 
very  sufficient  reasons  before  it  is  accepted  by  the  employment 
department  and  the  man   discharged   from  the     employ  of  the 
company  entirely.     It  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  in  most  cases  the  foreman  must  be  backed  up,  but  the 
fact  that  his  action  is  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  employment 
manager   will   make    him    consider   carefully   before   he    recom- 
mends discharging  a  man.     This  also  involves  considerable  edu- 
cation of  the   foremen,   and  they  should  be   instructed   to   talk 
over  with  the  employment  manager  all  cases  of  recommended 
discharge  before  taking  definite  action.     With  a  broad-minded, 


176  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

unbiased  employment  manager  this  plan  will  strengthen  rather 
than  weaken  discipline,  because  it  assures  every  one  a  square 
deal.  It  protects  an  employee  when  he  is  in  the  right  and 
makes  his  punishment  more  severe  when  he  is  in  the  wrong. 

Investigate  reasons  for  leaving. — Too  much  emphasis  can  not 
be  put  on  this  point.  The  periodic  chart  of  reasons  for  leaving 
is  the  index  to  the  whole  subject  of  turnover.  Success  or 
failure  in  coping  with  the  problem  depends  upon  reading  ac- 
curately and  interpreting  properly  what  is  shown  there.  The 
employment  manager  personally  should  see  every  man  before 
his  name  is  taken  off  the  pay  roll,  and  in  most  cases,  a  frank,  truth- 
ful statement  can  be  obtained  as  to  the  real  reason,  which  should 
be  made  a  matter  of  confidential  record.  This  material  will 
serve  as  a  basis  upon  which  to  work.  The  reasons  should  be 
thoroughly  and  accurately  analyzed  in  order  to  locate  the 
trouble.  When  once  it  is  located,  it  should,  together  with  com- 
plete recommendations  for  a  solution,  be  referred  to  the  proper 
authority  and  persistently  followed  up  until  some  action  is  taken. 
The  problem  of  turnover,  like  any  other  problem  in  business, 
must  be  solved  by  thorough  scientific  methods,  and  the  employment 
department  is  the  place  from  which  the  work  should  be  directed. 

Arrange  for  transfer  of  men  not  making  good. — Opinions  diff- 
er as  to  the  extent  to  which  this  should  be  carried  out,  but  it  is 
unfortunately  true  that  a  conscientious  man  is  not  always 
placed  at  first  on  work  for  which  he  is  properly  fitted.  This 
may  be  due  to  error  in  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  man  who 
hires  him,  or  he  may  consciously  or  unconsciously  misrepre- 
sent himself.  But  the  fact  remains  that  every  organization  has 
far  too  many  round  pegs  in  square  holes.  Misplaced  workmen 
whose  record  otherwise  shows  them  to  be  desirable  should  be 
given  as  many  chances  as  possible  without  placing  an  extra 
burden  on  the  organization.  After  an  employee  has  been 
working  a  short  time,  his  adaptabilities  are  more  evident  and 
he  can  then  be  placed  with  more  accuracy  than  before.  In  gen- 
eral, a  foreman  is  suspicious  of  a  man  who  he  feels  is  being 
"wished  on  him"  because  the  man  is  not  making  good.  But 
this,  again,  is  a  matter  of  education.  It  may  not  be  long  before 
the  foreman  has  just  such  a  man  himself  whom  he  would  like  to 
see  placed.  A  few  cases  where  misfits  have  been  advantage- 
ously adjusted  will  soon  convert  the  foreman  to  the  principle 
of  "live  and  let  live." 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       177 

Render  final  decision  subject  to  the  manager,  on  (a) 
change  of  rate;  (b)  transfer;  (c)  promotion.  A  thorough 
check  on  change  of  rate,  transfer,  and  prornotion  involves  a 
careful  scrutiny  of  the  record  of  the  employee  concerned.  The 
employment  manager,  with  the  complete  record  of  the  employee 
before  him,  is  obviously  best  equipped  to  exercise  this  function. 
He  is  not  only  familiar  with  shop  conditions  involving  rates, 
openings,  and  available  material,  but  is  also  in  touch  with  these 
same  factors  as  they  concern  the  outside.  It  is  of  course  es- 
sential that  any  one  of  these  three  changes  have  the  written  ap- 
proval of  the  foreman,  general  foreman,  and  the  superintendent 
concerned  before  being  effective,  in  order  to  keep  them  informed 
as  to  what  is  going  on  in  their  departments.  This,  however,  does 
not  constitute  a  check  on  the  employee's  record,  because  they 
do  not  have  as  complete  information  available  as  the  employ- 
ment department.  Neither  do  the}^  have  the  first-hand  infor- 
mation regarding  the  labor  market.  In  order  to  get  best  re- 
sults a  foreman  should  go  over  with  the  employment  manager 
the  cases  of  change  of  rate,  transfer,  or  promotion  before 
starting  the  slips.  This  will  enable  him  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  information  on  file  in  the  employment  department  re- 
garding the  workman  in  question. 

Study  earnings  of  workers. — The  necessity  of  becoming 
familiar  with  rates  has  been  taken  up  before.  Earnings,  both 
day  rate  and  piecework  averages,  should  be  carefully  analyzed 
and  this  information,  together  with  turnover  figures,  will  show 
where  it  is  necessary  to  make  adjustments.  Unasked-for  in- 
creases to  daj'workers  should  be  arranged  through  the  fore- 
man, instead  of  waiting  until  the  employee  becomes  dissatisfied 
and  asks  for  a  "raise."  The  foreman  is  so  busy  with  produc- 
tion problems  that  he  can  not  be  expected  to  follow  up  such 
matters  systematlcalh'.  By  working  through  the  foreman  in 
recommending  wage  increases  the  emplo^-ment  manager  is 
helping  him  rather  than  interfering.  The  best  way  of  ac- 
complishing this  is  for  the  employment  manager  to  go  over 
with  the  foreman  at  stated  periods  of  three  or  six  months  the 
rates  of  all  men  under  him  and  follow  with  rate  increases  which 
seem  justifiable.  Average  earnings  of  pieceworkers,  together 
with  turnover  figures,  will  show  where  rates  are  too  low  or 
too  high,  and  these  also  can  be  taken  up  with  the  foreman  and 
proper    adjustments    recommended    to    the    rate-setting    depart- 


178  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

mcnt.  Systematic  following  up  of  earnings,  and  granting  of 
unasked-for  adjustments  will  materially  reduce  turnover. 

Prepare  chart  of  understudies  for  all  positions  of  responsi- 
bility.— It  should  be  the  aim  of  every  concern  to  have  within 
its  organization  men  in  training  for  all  executive  positions  so 
that  any  vacancy  could  be  filled  by  promotion.  This  involves 
a  chart  of  the  organization  which  shows  the  position,  its  respon- 
sibility, the  man  holding  the  position,  and  the  man  who  could  be 
put  into  the  position  should  it  be  left  vacant.  This  will  enable  the 
concern  to  hold  within  its  organization  a  better  class  of  execu- 
tives because  they  will  know  that  they  are  in  line  for  promotion 
as  openings  occur.  The  organization  will  also  benefit  because 
there  is  a  decided  advantage  in  having  men  who  have  proven 
themselves  capable,  and  who  are  familiar  with  the  plant  and 
also  fairly  familiar  with  the  duties  of  the  position.  This  en- 
ables them  to  take  up  the  work  and  carry  it  on  without  inter- 
ruption. 

The  "three-position  plan"  of  promotion  as  outlined  by  F.  B. 
and  L.  M.  Gilbreth,  makes  each  employee  in  any  plant  a  mem- 
ber of  three  groups.  He  belongs  to  the  group  next  higher  up 
as  a  learner,  and  part  of  his  time  is  spent  in  preparation  for 
that  group.  He  belongs  to  the  group  below  as  a  teacher,  and 
part  of  his  time  is  devoted  to  instructing  some  one  in  this  lower 
group  to  take  his  place.  How  long  a  man  stays  in  this  working 
group  depends  upon  how  soon  he  can  train  a  man  below  him 
to  take  his  position  and  receive  training  himself  for  a  position 
in  the  next  higher  group. 

Keep  adequate  records.— Records  are  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  employment  department  is  built ;  naturally  the  foun- 
dation should  be  as  strong  as  possible.  Additional  files  and 
records  do  not  necessarily  mean  more  strength  for  the  system. 
Files  should  be  reduced  to  the  smallest  number  which  will  fur- 
nish an  adequate  check.  All  information  relating  to  the  indi- 
vidual employee  should  be  concentrated  in  one  place,  thus  mak- 
ing his  complete  record  available  at  a  glance.  Filing  systems 
should  be  as  simple  as  possible,  thus  reducing  chances  of  mis- 
filing.  It  is  also  essential  that  all  filing  be  kept  up  to  date  so 
the  latest  information  is  always  available.  It  is  important  that 
such  records  be  kept  confidential,  access  being  given  only  to 
superiors  of  the  man  in  question.  They  should  never  be  al- 
lowed   out    of    the    employment    department.     Copies    might    be 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       179 

made  in  certain  special  cases.  The  following  are  suggested  as 
sufficient  files  to  aflford  adequate  information  for  reports  and 
for  individual  records : 

(a)  Applications  on  file:  The  method  of  filing  depends 
upon  the  kind  of  forms  used.  Applications  should  be  so  filed 
as  to  be  readilj'  accessible  by  name  of  applicant  and  by  class  of 
work  for  which  he  is  fitted. 

(&)  Complete  record  of  individual  employees:  As  these 
records  are  generally  referred  to  by  name  they  should  be  ar- 
ranged   alphabetically.     This    would    include : 

I.     Information  obtained  at  time  of  hiring:     This,  of 
course,  covers  application  card,  any  references  se- 
cured, note  of  introduction,  if  any,  slip  from  doc- 
tor showing  medical     rating,   any     correspondence 
relative  to  his  application,  and  previous  record  in 
case  of  men  rehired. 
II.     Record  of  change  of  rate,  transfer,  and  promotion : 
This    should    cover    not    only    a    notation    of    the 
change,    but    a    record    of    any    reasons    or    other 
circumstances  connected  with  it. 

III.  Summary  of  pay-roll  records  for  individuals :  This 
will  cover  a  summary,  by  stated  periods,  of  aver- 
age earnings  of  pieceworkers,  bonuses,  and  late 
and  absence  reports.  If  the  pay-roll  department 
can  not  compile  this  data  in  such  form  as  to  ren- 
der it  available,  the  employment  department  should 
arrange  to  get  the  information  and  compile  it  for 
its  own  use. 

IV.  Summary  of  other  follow-up  records :  This  includes 
efficiency  record  or  periodic  certification  by  the 
foreman ;  periodic  summary  of  accidents,  sickness, 
and  hospital  service ;  any  awards  for  suggestions ; 
conduct  worthy  of  special  note  either  in  his  favor 
or  otherwise ;  or  any  information  of  value  con- 
cerning the  individual  which  has  been  called  to 
the  attention  of  the  employment  department. 

(c)  Record  of  ex-employees:  This  also  should  be  alpha- 
betically arranged  and  consist  of  the  record  above  mentioned, 
together  with  all  information  gathered  at  the  time  of  his  leav- 
ing. 


i8o  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

(d)  Numerical  file  of  employees:  It  is  necessary  to  have 
a  cross  index  to  the  alphabetical  file  for  the  purpose  of  assign- 
ing badge  or  identification-check  numbers.  This  need  contain 
nothing  more  than  the  man's  name,  department,  and  number. 

(e)  Daily  blotter  of  men  hired  and  transferred:  This 
should  be  a  pencil  memorandum  giving  the  name,  department, 
number,  and  rate  of  all  men  hired  and  transferred.  This  in- 
formation is  necessary  for  compiling  reports  at  the  end  of  the 
month,  because  when  the  records  are  once  filed  it  requires  con- 
siderable time  to  sort  them  out  again  according  to  dates. 

(/)  Daily  blotter  of  men  removed  from  pay  roll :  This 
should  include  the  name,  department,  number,  date  hired,  date 
removed,  and  a  brief  statement  of  the  reason.  This  again  is 
for  convenience  in  compiling  reports. 

Compile  periodic  reports  showing  turnover. — The  value  of 
reports  on  turnover  is  not  questioned  now.  The  object  should 
be  to  gather  only  information  which  is  of  value  and  present  it 
in  simple,  concise  form.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
the  compiling  of  reports,  in  itself,  is  a  waste  of  time  unless 
something  is  done  with  them.  They  are  merely  an  aid  in  the 
solution  of  turnover  problems.  They  must  be  properly  interpret- 
ed and  recommendations  made  and  followed  through.  The 
following  are  suggested  as  being  of  value.  In  most  cases  it 
will  be  advantageous  to  combine  two  or  more  of  them  in  one 
report. 

(a)     Number  hired,  by  departments. 

{b)  Number  discharged,  laid  off,  and  resigned,  by  depart- 
ments, compared  to  corresponding  number  on  pay  roll. 

(c)  Number  discharged,  laid  off,  and  resigned,  by  depart- 
ments and  causes. 

{d)  Number  discharged,  laid  off,  and  resigned,  by  depart- 
ments and  length  of  service. 

(e)  Number  discharged,  laid  off,  and  resigned,  by  classes 
of  work. 

Supervise  proper  instruction  of  new  employees. — The  prop- 
er instruction  of  new  employees  is  of  vital  importance  from  the 
standpoint  of  turnover.  There  are  few  organizations  which  are 
not  lame  on  this  particular  point.  Some,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  establish  instruction  departments  inde- 
pendent of  the  manufacturing  organization.  This  may  be  a 
little  radical   for  some  of  us  now,  but  the  employment  depart- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       i8i 

ment  when  it  turns  over  a  new  man  to  the  manufacturing  de- 
partment should  make  arrangements  for  adequate  instruction. 
Further  than  this,  in  following  up  the  new  employee's  perfor- 
mance until  he  is  broken  in,  the  employment  department  should 
insist  upon  his  getting  proper  instruction  and  make  such  recom- 
mendations as  seem  pertinent,  with  a  view  to  improving  the 
methods  used.  This  also  involves  some  arrangement  with  the 
rate-setting  department  for  a  satisfactory  wage  for  beginners. 

Investigate  cases  of  absentees. — This  may  border  upon  wel- 
fare or  service  work,  but  it  is  nevertheless  a  part  of  the  legiti- 
mate employment  department  function.  The  shop  clerk  or  time 
department  should  furnish  the  employment  department  each 
morning  with  a  list  of  all  absentees,  giving  the  reason  for  the 
absence  if  any  is  known.  It  should  be  left  to  the  judgment  of 
the  employment  manager  in  each  case  to  decide  how  long  they 
should  wait  before  sending  someone  to  look  into  the  case.  If 
properly  handled,  workmen  will  appreciate  rather  than  resent 
having  some  one  call  at  their  homes.  A  written  report  should 
be  made  of  the  visit.  These  cases  naturally  fall  into  three 
classes : 

(a)  Out  on  account  of  sickness :  In  case  notice  has  been 
sent  in  that  an  employee  is  sick  it  is  desirable  to  have  some  one 
call  within  a  few  days  to  see  how  he  is  getting  along.  Very 
often  there  is  something  that  can  be  done  to  help. 

(b)  Out  on  account  of  injun,':  In  cases  of  injury  where 
employees  are  not  able  to  report  at  the  factory  hospital  for 
treatment,  it  is  of  course  necessary  to  have  the  factory  doctor 
call,  but  in  addition  someone  from  the  employment  department 
should  stop  in  occasionally.  A  little  personal  interest  in  in- 
jured employees  is  a  good  investment.  Misunderstandings  re- 
garding accident  compensation  can  be  straightened  out  and  in 
many  cases  the  company'  can  be  of  assistance  in  other  ways. 

(c)  Out  for  unknown  reasons:  Investigation  of  cases  of 
employees  out  without  sending  in  any  reason  will  very  often 
find  them  sick,  and  occasionally  injured,  and  in  many  cases  dis- 
satisfied with  their  work.  There  is  a  question  of  how  far  to 
go  in  the  latter  case,  but  generally  it  is  advisable  to  have  the 
man  come  in  and  talk  the  matter  over  with  his  foreman.  In 
many  cases  a  misunderstanding  can  be  adjusted  and  a  good  em- 
ployee saved.  However,  care  must  be  exercised  not  to  let  an 
employee  feel  that  the  company  is  running  after  him,  because 


i82  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

he  may  feel  that  he  is  indispensable.  Even  if  the  man  is  not 
brought  back  to  work,  his  real  reasons  for  leaving  are  obtained. 
This  alone  makes  the  visit  worth  while. 

Aim  to  give  the  plant  a  good  name. — In  order  to  obtain  the 
most  desirable  employees,  it  is  necessary  to  establish  among 
workmen  a  good  name  for  the  plant.  One  "knocker"  can  do 
endless  harm  in  this  connection.  There  are  three  ways  of  ac- 
complishing this  which  are  worthy  of  note : 

(a)  Prompt  and  courteous  treatment  of  applicants:  Have 
an  adequate  and  comfortable  waiting  room,  but  handle  appli- 
cants as  quickly  and  smoothly  as  possible,  because  they  soon 
tire  of  waiting  and  others  coming  in  will  not  stay  if  there  is 
a  crowd  waiting  and  it  is  being  handled  slowly.  It  is  also  essen- 
tial to  treat  courteously  everj-onc  apphing,  even  if  it  is  neces- 
sary to  turn  him  down,  because  the  impression  he  takes  away 
with   him   may  have   considerable   influence  among  workmen. 

(b)  Just  and  courteous  treatment  of  employees:  Although 
this  reputation  must  be  founded  on  more  than  the  employment 
department's  treatment  of  employees,  that  department  is  in  a 
position  to  follow  up  any  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  em- 
ployees and  insure  their  getting  a  square  deal. 

(c)  Fair  and  courteous  treatment  of  workmen  leaving 
employ:  The  men  who  have  worked  for  a  concern  play  a 
large  part  in  molding  the  general  opinion  of  workmen  toward 
it.  It  is  therefore  essential  for  the  employment  manager  to  see 
each  workman  leaving  and  make  his  last  impression  of  the 
company  as  agreeable  as  possible.  There  is  in  almost  every  in- 
stance a  wa\'  of  "firing"  a  man  without  having  him  go  away  a 
"knocker."  The  same  applies  to  men  leaving  because  they  are 
dissatisfied.  If  the  company's  viewpoint  is  properly  explained 
they  can  grasp  it  in  most  cases,  and  realize  that  the  fault  is  at 
least  partly  their  own. 

This  paper  is  not  held  up  as  a  ready-made  plan  for  an  em- 
ployment department,  applicable  in  toto  to  all  plants.  It  is, 
rather,  a  survey  of  what  is  coming  to  be  recognized  as  the  best 
in  modern  employment-department  practice.  An  effort  has  been 
made  to  make  the  paper  comprehensive,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
exhaustive.  Each  one,  viewing  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
plant  he  represents,  can  undoubtedly  see  modifications,  addi- 
tions,  and  omissions  which  will  make  the   scheme   stronger  in 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       183 

its  application  to  his  particular  organization.  We  hope  that  there 
may  be  found  in  this  outline  some  points  of  value  to  those  con- 
cerns which  have  not  as  yet  a  fully  developed  employment  de- 
partment. 


ORGANIZING  THE  EMPLOYMENT 
DEPARTMENT ' 

Co-ordination  of  effort  under  one  head  in  selecting  and 
placing  the  workers  is  as  necessary  among  the  various  depart- 
ments within  the  plant  as  it  is  among  the  outside  agencies  re- 
cruiting them.  The  man-power  problem  in  each  individual 
yard  demands  as  uniform  and  consistent  a  policy  as  the  tech- 
nical problem  of  production.  The  most  economical  and  effec- 
tive means  of  handling  this  problem  is  through  the  establish- 
ment of  a  centralized  employment  department. 

The  functions  of  a  properly  constituted  employment  de- 
partment may  be  broadly  and  briefly  defined  as  follows :  to  de- 
velop sources  of  labor  supply  that  will  provide  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  competent  employees;  to  select  and  place  employees  in 
the  jobs  to  which  they  are  best  fitted;  to  control  questions  of 
transfer,  promotion,  discharge,  and  other  adjustments  affecting 
the  employee  relaiionsliips  in  tlie  plant;  and  to  develop  ivithin 
the  organization  plans  for  mutual  helpfulness  that  will  pro- 
mote a  spirit  of  genuine  co-operation  and  understanding  be- 
tween the  management  and  the  etnployee.  By  these  and  similar 
means  the  emplojTuent  department  serves  to  make  it  worth  the 
employees'  while  to  stick  to  the  jobs  they  have  and  put  forth 
their  best  efforts. 

Briefly,  the  employment  department  stands  as  the  appraiser 
of  the  standard  of  personal  relationship  by  assisting  the  de- 
partment heads  in  keeping  and  training  their  employees  so  that 
they  may  be  not  only  of  the  greatest  use  to  the  companj',  but 
to  themselves  and  the  community  as  well.  Moreover,  the  de- 
partment insures  that  the  standards  set  are  in  accord  with  the 
best  industrial  practice,  and  at  the  same  time  are  based  upon  the 
interests  of  both  company  and  workers. 

'  Bulletin  I.  Handbook  on  Employment  Management.  U.  S.  Shipping 
Board.      Emergency  Fleet  Corporation.      Philadelphia,    19 18. 


i84  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


Steps  in  Organizing  the  Department 

In  proceeding  to  organize  an  efificient  employment  depart- 
ment there  are  four  principal  points  which  must  be  borne  in 
mind.     They  are : 

1.  The  management  should  really  feel  the  need  for  such  a 
department  and  fully  appreciate  the  advantages  to  be 
gained  by  it. 

2.  The  proper  employment  manager  mtist  be  selected. 

3.  The  policy  and  plan  of  the  employment  department  must 
he  clearly  defined  to  foremen,  superintendents  and  all 
employees  by  the  general  manager  and  on  all  occasions 
be  supported  by  him. 

4.  The  department  must  be  properly  housed,  equipped  and 
manned  to  perform  its  functions. 

Company's  Policy 

The  progress  and  ultimate  success  that  the  employment  de- 
partment will  have  in  the  organization  will  depend  largely  upon 
the  policy  of  the  company  and  its  attitude  toward  its  workers. 
The  management  should  not  only  at  heart  desire  that  fair 
treatment,  good  working  conditions  and  adequate  wages  prevail, 
but  it  should  appreciate  that,  together  with  the  proper  selec- 
tion and  placement  of  employees,  these  things  definitely  increase 
production.  The  management  that  really  feels  this  appreciates 
its  need  of  an  employment  department  and  will  be  ready  and 
willing  to  devote  the  time,  patience  and  expense  necessary  to 
its  development. 

The  head  of  the  employment  department  should  hold  a  po- 
sition of  equal  rank  with  the  executives  in  charge  of  the  other 
major  departments  and  be  responsible  only  to  the  general  man- 
ager. As  the  official  in  charge  of  the  man-power  problems,  he 
must  be  in  a  position  to  act  with  the  same  degree  of  authority 
as  those  in  charge  of  the  technical  problems  of  production  and 
be  supported  by  the  general  manager  accordingly. 

One  of  the  most  fundamental  policies  that  the  general  man- 
agement can  establish  is  the  maintenance  of  an  executive  coun- 
cil or  cabinet  to  discuss  the  interrelated  problems  of  labor  and 
production.     This    cabinet    should    be    composed    of   the    execu- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       185 

tives  who  are  in  charge  of  the  technical  problems  of  produc- 
tion, the  employment  manager,  who  is  the  executive  in  charge 
of  the  labor  problems,  and  the  executive  who  is  in  charge  of 
the  problems  of  general  control. 

The  Employment  Manager 

Special  attention  must  be  given  to  the  type  of  man  chosen 
as  employment  manager.  He  should  be  a  capable  executive, 
broad-minded,  fair  and  square,  and  of  a  sympathetic  tempera- 
ment, in  order  that  he  may  be  easily  approached  by  any  man  in 
the  organization — ready  at  all  times  to  listen  to  their  complaints, 
troubles  or  suggestions,  and  big  enough  to  solve  their  prob- 
lems and  keep  them  happy  and  satisfied  with  their  work. 

He  should  possess  sufficient  familiarity  with  all  the  opera- 
tions performed  in  the  plant  to  enable  him  to  see  that  men 
qualified  to  perform  the  work  called  for  in  each  position  are 
hired. 

A  man  in  this  position  needs  to  possess  courtesy,  even 
temper,  patience,  and  ability  to  be  a  good  mixer.  Furthermore, 
he  should  have  sufficient  poise  and  dignity  to  sit  at  the  council 
table  with  other  executives  and  heads  of  departments  and  dis- 
cuss intelligently  current  plant  problems. 

In  short,  it  is  necessary  that  he  be  a  man  in  whom  the  man- 
ager may  have  implicit  faith  and  to  whom  he  can  intrust  the 
personnel  of  the  plant  with  the  same  degree  of  confidence  that 
he  intrusts  production  to  the  production  manager.  The  mod- 
ern employment  manager  is  a  specialist  in  human  nature,  an 
analyst  of  work  requirements,  and  an  interpreter  of  human  re- 
lationships. He  is  the  connecting  link  between  the  management 
and  the  employees,  possessing  the  confidence  of  both  without  be- 
traying the  confidence  of  either. 

Men  who  measure  up  to  these  requirements  are  difficult  to 
find,  as  such  a  rare  combination  of  talents  and  experience  is 
not  readily  available.  It  is  best  to  select  a  man  who  possesses 
the  broader  requirements  with  the  expectation  that  he  will  de- 
velop the  more  technical  qualifications.  It  is  much  better  and 
requires  less  time  and  expense  to  teach  an  experienced,  well- 
trained  employment  manager  the  necessary  details  of  shipbuild- 
ing to  qualify  him  sufficiently  to  handle  his  work,  than  it  does 
to  take  a  man  who  knows  all  about  ships  and  try  to  teach  him 


i86  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  principles  of  modern  employment  management,  and  to  de- 
velop within  him  the  personal  qualifications  necessary  to 
handle  men. 

To  attract  a  properly  qualified  man  to  the  position  of  em- 
ployment manager,  tlie  salary  must  be  substantial,  with  oppor- 
tunities for  further  advancement  as  merited. 

Employment  Department's  Relationship 

When  the  employment  manager  is  chosen,  his  policy  and 
plan  must  be  properly  introduced  and  explained  to  the  foremen 
and  superintendents,  and  his  relationship  to  the  entire  organisa- 
tion be  clearly  established.  At  the  outset,  the  general  manager 
should  make  it  clearly  understood  to  everyone  that  the  employ- 
ment department  is  a  separate  and  distinct  department,  possess- 
ing full  authority  to  deal  with  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  hir- 
ing, transferring,  following  up,  adjusting,  and  discharge  of  em- 
ployees, and  to  the  problems  arising  in  connection  with  em- 
ployees' relationships.  The  employment  manager  must  have  the 
unqualified  suport  of  the  general  manager.  The  general  man- 
ager should  give  him  the  same  backing  and  support  he  gives 
other  executives,  and  see  that  he  is  not  interfered  with  in  the 
performance  of  his  work  by  other  department  heads. 

Probably  the  best  way  to  make  the  foreman  and  superin- 
tendents understand  the  help  that  the  employment  manager  can 
give  them  is  to  get  them  together  in  a  body — preferably  at  a 
luncheon  or  dinner,  as  this  promotes  a  spirit  of  genuine  fel- 
lowship. The  general  manager  should  preside  at  this  meeting, 
not  send  a  "personal  representative."  In  addressing  them,  he 
should  make  the  foremen  realize  that  the  new  department  is 
in  no  way  an  effort  arbitrarily  to  force  a  new  scheme  of  things 
upon  them.  The  greatest  danger  to  the  employment  depart- 
ment's success  arises  out  of  disturbing  the  foremen's  long  es- 
tablished privilege  of  hiring  and  firing.  If  a  foreman  feels  that 
the  employment  department  is  designed  to  rob  him  of  his  long 
cherished  privilege  he  will  immediately  be  hostile.  It  is,  there- 
fore, essential  that  the  general  manager  should  demonstrate 
the  necessity  for  the  new  department. 

He  can  do  this  effectively  by  showing  the  effect  of  labor 
turn-over.  He  can  show  what  it  means  to  the  company  to  hire 
and  break  in  a  worker  under  the  old  scheme,  with  the  lessened 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       187 

production,  accidents,  cost  of  instruction,  spoiled  work,  and 
other  factors  involved,  and  what  an  expensive  mistake  it  is 
to  lose  this  man  when  frequently  he  has  just  become  a  real  pro- 
ducer. He  can  mention  the  cost  to  the  individual  workers  who 
lose  time  and  money  in  passing  from  job  to  job  and  in  moving 
their  homes  from  place  to  place,  and  he  can  show  how  this 
shifting  about  leads  to  industrial  unrest  and  decreased  produc- 
tion. The  general  manager  should  show  how,  out  of  this  situ- 
ation, the  need  has  clearly  arisen  for  some  department  to  de- 
vote its  exclusive  attention  to  finding  means  for  improving 
these  conditions. 

The  general  manager  should  then  define  the  scope  and  func- 
tions of  the  employment  department,  and  make  clear  the  method 
for  co-ordinating  the  work  with  other  departments  of  the 
shipyard,  especially  the  departments  of  time  and  pay-roll.  The 
whole  matter  should  be  put  clearly  and  squarely  before  the  fore- 
men and  superintendents  with  a  frank,  open  discussion  of  every 
angle  of  the  proposition. 

This  is  the  time  to  introduce  the  prospective  employment 
manager,  in  order  that  he  may  get  acquainted  with  the  men,  ex- 
press his  views,  outline  the  general  method  of  procedure  to  be 
adopted,  and  answer  the  questions  of  the  foremen.  The  em- 
ployment manager  who  knows  his  work  realizes  that  his  suc- 
cess is  dependent  largely  upon  his  ability  to  establish  friendly 
personal  relations  with  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact. 
He  will  make  it  clear  that  he  wants  to  know  the  foremen's  view- 
points and  that  it  is  his  first  intention  to  be  helpful  to  them.  He 
may  begin  by  first  pointing  out  to  the  foremen  just  how  much 
work  they  already  have  to  do.  They  are  responsible  for  the  general 
supervision  of  production  in  their  departments,  maintenance  of 
discipline,  proper  care  of  machines,  arrangements  of  oper- 
ations, instruction  of  employees,  reduction  of  waste,  and  some- 
times have  had  the  added  responsibility  of  hiring  and  keeping 
help. 

The  employment  manager  should  show  the  foremen  the 
benefit  they  may  derive  from  the  use  of  the  employment  de- 
partment in  view  of  these  many  duties.  He  should  impress 
upon  them  the  fact  that  the  first  and  last  steps  in  hiring  are 
still  to  be  the  foreman's :  the  first  in  his  act  of  making  the 
requisition  and  the  last  in  accepting  or  rejecting  the  man  the 
employment   department  has   chosen.     The   employment   depart- 


i88  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

merit's  task  in  supplying  the  foreman's  department  is  to  base  its 
choice  of  a  man  upon  a  careful  analysis  of  the  particular  job 
to  be  filled,  and  then  assign  an  applicant  only  after  thorough 
interviews  have  indicated  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the  work.  The 
foreman,  the  employment  manager  should  point  out,  can  then 
count  on  a  better  body  of  workmen  who  will  directly  increase 
his  department's  production. 

The  employment  department  further  will  save  the  foreman 
the  time  of  interviewing  applicants  at  hours  when  the  foreman's 
chief  concern  is  the  progress  of  the  work  in  his  department, 
and  when  he  would  be  seeing  that  the  new  employees  are  satis- 
factorily taking  hold  of  their  work. 

The  emi)loyment  manager  should  explain  that  in  cases  of  dis- 
missal the  foreman  need  merely  send  the  man  to  the  employ- 
ment department  and  thus  be  helped  in  maintaining  discipline 
by  avoiding  among  the  employees  any  loud  disturbance  by  the 
discharged  employee.  The  handling  of  dismissals  through  the 
employment  department  helps  the  foreman  to  avoid  hasty  ac- 
tion due  to  press  of  work  and  other  duties  which  he  might 
regret  later. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  workers,  when  they  realize  that  an 
employee  is  dismissed  by  the  employment  department  only  af- 
ter the  employee's  side  has  been  fairly  heard  and  his  case  care- 
fully considered,  will  be  relieved  of  the  fear  of  being  made  the 
victims  of  whims  and  naturally  will  become  a  better  working 
force. 

The  employment  manager  should  show,  furthermore,  that  the 
employment  department,  by  satisfactorily  adjusting  grievances 
and  dissatisfaction,  can  save  many  valuable  employees  to  the 
yard  and  can  discover  causes  of  dissatisfaction  within  the  yard 
itself  and  eliminate  them. 

When  the  employment  manager  has  outlined  his  policy  and 
plans,  there  may  still  be  a  number  of  points  at  issue  that  must 
be  explained,  but  experience  has  proved  that  once  the  fore- 
men and  superintendents  thoroughly  understand  the  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  such  a  department  and  the  benefits  it  offers, 
they  are  heartily  in  favor  of  it.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  mu- 
tual  understanding. 

Subsequent  to  this  meeting,  a  general  order  bearing  the  gen- 
eral manager's  signature  should  announce  the  appointment  of 
the   employment  manager   to   his  position.     This   announcement 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       189 

definitely  establishes  the  work  in  such  a  way  that  the  employ- 
ment manager  will  be  met  with  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the 
foremen  and  superintendents. 

Following  this  tJie  procedure  and  practice  of  the  employ- 
ment department  should  be  put  in  writing  and  a  copy  bearing 
the  general  inanager's  signature  should  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  each  foreman  and  superintendent.  This  may  well  be  called 
the  foreman's  manual,  since  it  definitely  explains  every  detail 
of  the  operations  in  which  they  are  concerned,  telling  them  just 
how  to  proceed  when  desiring  to  call  upon  the  employment  de- 
partment for  any  service  it  may  render.  The  proper  preparation 
of  this  manual  will  be  covered  by  a  subsequent  bulletin. 

In  spite  of  such  careful  preparation  and  their  willingness,  the 
foremen  and  superintendents  do  not  always  clearly  understand 
just  how  they  can  best  co-operate.  From  time  to  time  dissatis- 
faction will  appear  and  complaints  will  be  made,  each  one  of 
which,  however,  should  be  looked  upon  as  an  opportunity  for 
securing  the  support  of  the  complainant.  Co-operation  and  good 
will  are  bound  to  come  if  the  employment  manager  demonstrates 
his  absolute  fairness  and  impartiality  in  all  matters. 

The  general  manager,  upon  such  occasions,  must  be  careful 
not  to  depreciate  the  position  of  the  employment  department, 
even  if  it  may  have  erred.  Frequent  constructive  criticism  will 
be  necessary,  but  it  should  always  be  given  privately  and  di- 
rectly to  the  employment  manager  himself. 

It  will  require  time  and  diplomacy,  ceaseless  energy  and  pa- 
tience on  the  part  of  the  employment  manager  to  gain  the  con- 
fidence and  co-operation  he  desires.  He  will  do  this  most 
readily  by  demonstrating  his  spirit  of  helpfulness  by  providing 
department  heads  with  capable  employees;  by  assisting  them  in 
matters  of  development  and  promotion;  by  advising  them  con- 
cerning their  labor^  difficulties  and  problems;  and  by  furnishing 
them  with  information  on  general  labor  conditions. 

In  order  to  assist  the  employment  department  in  securing 
the  further  co-operation  of  the  various  executives,  informal 
meetings  of  the  department  heads  should  be  held  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  employment  problems.  Regular  group  conferences  of 
this  kind  are  excellent  for  threshing  out  and  adjusting  differ- 
ences of  opinion.  They  afford  everyone  the  opportunity  of 
getting  better  acquainted  and  give  the  employment  manager  an 
insight  into  the  difficulties  that  other  branches  of  the  plant  are 


190  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

having.  If  the  employment  department  is  having  difficulty  in 
securing  workers,  these  meetings  are  the  place  to  discuss  the 
question,  instead  of  waiting  until  the  day  the  men  are  needed, 
and  then  saying  they  cannot  be  obtained.  Experience  has  always 
proved  that  once  the  department  heads  actually  appreciate  the 
work  of  the  employment  department,  they  are  generous  in  their 
attitude  and  entirely  willing  to  co-operate  with  it. 

The  general  manager  should  keep  as  closely  in  touch  with 
the  work  as  possible.  This  can  best  be  done  by  regular  reports 
and  meetings  with  the  employment  manager  regarding: 

1.  Policies,  plans  and  methods  on  which  the  employment  de- 
partment wishes  his  approval. 

2.  Periodic  reports  giving  labor  turn-over  and  its  causes  by 
departments  and  trades  as  well  as  for  the  plant  as  a  whole. 

3.  Labor  requirements  for  succeeding  periods  of  time,  in- 
cluding estimates  of  the  number  of  additional  workers 
by  occupations  and  a  statement  of  sources  and  methods 
through  which  they  are  to  be  obtained. 

4.  Other  matters  that  are  vital  to  the  operation  and  improve- 
ment of  the  department. 

No  matter  how  s}mpathetic  the  company  may  be  with  the 
employment  plan,  how  well  cliosen  the  employment  manager,  or 
how  satisfactory  the  employment  department's  relationships 
within  tlie  company,  the  department  itself  cannot  function  prop- 
erly until  its  organization  has  been  thoroughly  planned  and  es- 
tablished. It  must  be  appreciated  at  the  outset  that  partially  ar- 
ranged plans  will  not  secure  the  desired  results.  It  will  take 
time  and  patience  to  effect  a  complete  organization  and  put  it 
into  smooth-running  order.  No  reasonable  expense  should  be 
spared  to  so  organize  the  department  that  it  may  render  con- 
tinuously efficient  service. 

Since  subsequent  bulletins  will  present  details  for  the  proper 
equipment  and  housing  of  the  employment  department,  for  the 
procedure  involved  in  the  selection  and  placement  of  the  work- 
ers, and  for  handling  other  problems  of  employee  relations  it 
is  sufficient,  in  this  bulletin,  merely  to  outline  broadly  the  work 
of  the  employment  department  as  follows : 

1.  Developing  sources  of  labor  supply. 

2.  Selection  and  placement  of  new   employees. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       191 

a.  Interviewing  applicants. 

b.  Fitting  the  man  to  the  particular  job  on  the  basis  of 
qualifications  and  experience. 

c.  Ascertaining,  by  physician's  examination,  applicant's 
physical  fitness  for  the  work  contemplated. 

d.  Completing  the  necessary  records  for  entering  the 
new  employee's  name  on  the  pay-roll.  This  includes 
photographing  the  employee  and  issuing  him  a  pass. 

e.  Introducing  the  new  employee  to  his  job. 

3.  Follow-up  and  adjustments. 

a.  Rating   employee's   efficiency. 

b.  Determining  promotions. 

c.  Handling  transfers,  discharges,  grievances,  and  other 
employees'  adjustments. 

4.  Related    activities. 

This  includes  the  department's  attention  to  questions  of 
safety,  health,   sanitation,  training,  recreation,  and  other 
general  service  for  emploj'ees. 

The  staff  of  workers  in  the  employment  department  should  at 
all  times  be  sufficient  to  adequately,  but  economically,  handle  the 
work  as  outlined  above.  The  exact  number  will  be  determined 
by  the  size  of  the  yard  and  the  type  of  work.  The  duties  of 
each  individual  should  be  clearly  set  forth  in  writing  in  order 
that  duplication  of  effort  and  consequent  confusion  may  be 
avoided.  A  department  organization  chart,  such  as  the  one 
illustrated  on  page  192,  posted  in  various  parts  of  the  office, 
showing  the  organization  in  more  detail  where  necessary  and 
kept  up-to-date,  should  be  made  the  means  of  acquainting  the 
employees  in  the  department  with  their  individual  relationships. 

One  of  the  most  essential  positions  in  the  department  is 
that  of  interviewer.  It  is  with  him  that  the  applicant  makes  his 
first  contact  with  his  prospective  employer.  The  impressions 
here  established  may  materially  affect  the  reputation  of  the 
company  in  the  labor  market.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  inter- 
viewer's responsibilty  to  select  and  assign  the  applicant.  These 
duties  are  so  important  that  in  the  selection  of  an  interviewer 
his  ability  and  previous  training  are  to  be  considered  as  second 
only  to  those  of  the  employment  manager.  Skilled  interviewers 
can  save  many  thousands  of  dollars  for  their  companies.  The 
salaries  paid  them  must  be  sufficient  to  attract  and  hold  men  of 


192 


SELECTED   ARTICLES 


a  high  order  of  inteUigence  who  are  famihar  with  shipyard  oc- 
cupations. 

Problems  of  such  importance  constantly  will  arise  that  they 
will  have  to  be  passed  on  by  the  interviewer  to  the  employment 
manager  himself.  In  this  situation  the  employment  manager 
must  be  careful  that  attention  to  detail  does  not  destroy  his  use- 
fulness in  developing  the  larger  aspects  of  his  work.  At  the 
same  time  he  must  not  fall  into  the  habit  of  too  loosely  super- 
vising the  work  of  those  under  him. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGER 


ASSISTANT 
EMPLOYMENT  MANAGER. 


HIRING 
DIVISION 


ADJUSTMENT  AND 
SMPlOm  RELATIONS  Dl¥. 


PHYSICAL 

EXAMINATIOH  DIVISION 


CLERICAL 
DIVISION 


ASSISTANT 
(HPiWKeNT  MANACCn. 


\CMPWyM£HTMAMO£R\ 


\H£ADPHySICIAN\ 

\ASSISTANTS\ 


( 

\lNT£RmWCR 


mSPECTOROf 
APFUCATIONS 


[chief  clerk] 

PASS  AND 
RATE  CLERKS 

OFFICE  FORCE 

CLERKS, 
Sm/06RAPH[I>S 

MESSEneCRS 

ORGANIZATION  CHART 

EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT 

FOR  A  PLANT  WITH  200O  TO  4000  MALE  EMPLOYEES 


The  employment  manager  should  make  it  a  point  to  get  out 
into  the  plant  a  great  deal,  in  order  that  he  may  know  as  much 
about  actual  operating  problems  as  possible.  He  should  be  con- 
stantly in  touch  with  all  sources  of  information  that  will  help 
to  build  up  and  maintain  his  department. 

Visits  to  employment  departments  in  other  shipyards  and 
industrial  plants  are  of  great  value.  It  is  most  helpful  oc- 
casionally to  get  away  from  one's  own  work  and  observe  what 
is  being  done  elsewhere.  New  ideas  are  developed  and  new 
points  of  view  discovered. 

If  an  employment  managers'  association  exists  in  the  vicinity, 
the  employment  manager  should,  by  all  means,  ally  himself  with 
it.    These  associations  make  possible  an  exchange  of  ideas  and 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       193 

fellowship  that  is  not  available  in  any  other  way.  They  aflFord 
opportunity  for  members  to  get  together  and  discuss  questions 
and  obtain  advice  on  practical  problems. 


A  MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  RELATIONS 
DEPARTMENT' 

That  the  problems  of  handling  the  relations  between  com- 
panj'  and  employees  in  a  large  organization  requires  a  specially 
trained  and  organized  staff  is  now  universally  conceded,  but 
inasmuch  as  very  few  employers  have  taken  up  this  subject  and 
developed  it  in  any  well-planned  or  scientific  way,  one  looking 
to  find  a  correct  criterion  to  follow  will  be  disappointed,  for 
there  seem  to  be  no  two  organizations  developed  along  uni- 
form methods.  For  the  guidance  of  those  who  are  interested 
in  practical  research  as  to  the  best  methods  of  organization  and 
the  apportioning  of  specific  functions  to  highly  developed  sub- 
divisions of  a  general  plan,  the  following  outline  has  been  pre- 
pared. It  is  not  claimed  that  this  outline  is  ideal,  but  it  has 
been  drawn  up  after  extensive  study  of  the  most  successful  em- 
ployment and  welfare  organizations  of  the  present  day. 

The  handling  of  employee  relation  problems  should  be  the 
function  of  a  special  department  which  should  come  directly 
under  the  president  or  general  head  of  the  company,  and  this 
department  should  be  managed  by  a  special  official  who  reports 
directly  to  the  president.  The  functions  of  a  modern  industrial 
relations  department  are :  i — To  engage,  place,  transfer  and 
remove  workmen,  2 — To  provide  for  the  safety  of  employees, 
3 — To  provide  for  the  good  health  of  employees,  4 — To  provide 
for  the  mental,  physical  and  social  welfare  of  employees,  and, 
5 — To  provide  health,  accident,  death  and  old-age  insurance. 

Each  of  these  five  divisions  requires  the  supervision  of  an 
experienced  executive  who  has  the  technical  educational  and 
practical  experience  coupled  with  a  pleasing  personality  to  put 
it  across.  These  five  division  heads  should  meet  regularly  in 
joint  conference  with  the  director  of  the  department,  and  should 
also  meet  in  regular  conference  at  the  meetings  of  the  heads  of 
all  the  other  departments  of  the  plant  in  order  that  thorough 
understanding  and  co-operation  may  be  had  from  all  sides. 

^  By  E.  C.  Gould.  Manager,  Industrial  Relations,  Youngstown  Sheet 
&  Tube  Co.     Iron  Age.      102:832-3.     October  3,   1918. 


194 


SELECTED    ARTICLES 


Each  of  the  five  main  divisions  should  be  again  divided  into 

clearly  defined  units  in  order  that  no  phase  of  the  work  will 

be  neglected  or  favored.     A  tentative  outline  of  the  subdivision 

follows : 

I— LABOR  SUPERVISION  DEPARTMENT 

A — Employment 

I — Employment    Office. 

Engages   new  employees. 
Rehires   and   transfers   old   employees. 

Studies  the  jobs  in  the  plant  and  working  conditions  so  as  to  place 
employees    intelligently. 


PR.EJlDEriT 


AJJUTATITTO 
PRESIDENT 


CtMTRALflLEJ 

Ajjutant 

JtatuiicalDw 

PiBtnouor 

LABOlt 

Jafty 
DiRECTOR. 

DlKECTOROr 
WElfAIlt 

OiiLrJimiEON 

DlRECTDEOr 
iNJURAMCt 

tMPLCTmLHT 

Officf. 

Police. 

Education 

hOJPlTALaillK: 

DentalCumc 

COMPL^JAnCf 

bURIAUOF 
LA50R 

flR-E. 

RfiCRZATION 

PHYJOl. 

ExaminatiomI 

J)1CK 
Dl^th 

CtKon 

LAbOR. 
CLEHKJ 

VA-5HHOa5E.5 
SJiANITATION 

COOPERATIVE 
JTDEIJ 

Vijiting 

NURJEJ 

PtNJioru 

WELrARE 

1 

1 

.    1 

1 

HOUJIMG. 
CAMPJ. 

Legal 
Aid 

Aliem 
Aid 

domejtic 

RELATlOm 

Plan  of  a  Functional  Department  of  Industrial  Relations. 


2 — Registration    Office. 

Makes   up   the   employment   records  of  all  employees  engaged. 
Assigns  check  numbers   and  clock   cards   to   new  employees. 

B — Bureau  of  Labor 

I — Labor  clerks  to  keep  daily  records  of  the  work  and  progress  of  em- 
ployees  in   the  various  departments. 

2 — Investigation  of  absentees  at  their  homes  to  find  out  the  reason  for 
absence,  and  to  offer  help  in  case  of  sickness  or  death. 

3 — Interviewing  of  all  quitters  and  other  employees  who  may  be  dis- 
gruntled or  have  labor  troubles  or  complaints  and  to  adjust  same 
whenever  possible,  and  to  pass  on  all  discharges  with  final  authority. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       195 

II— SAFETY   DEPARTMENT 

I — To   provide   safe   working  conditions. 

2 — To  teach  and  train  men  to  follow  safe  methods  of  work. 
3 — To   investigate   accidents   and   remove   the   causes   whenever   possible. 
4 — To   provide   for   policing   the   plant. 
5 — To  provide  fire  protection  for  the  plant. 

6 — To  provide  wash  and  change  houses,  lockers,  etc.,  and  care  for  their 
upkeep. 

Ill— MEDICAL   DEPARTMENT 

I — First  aid  equipment  and  care  of  injured  and  sick. 

2 — Physical  examination   of  new  employees. 

3 — Follow-up   of  sick   and   injured   employees. 

4 — Visiting  nurses  to  give  aid  in  the  homes  of  the  sick  and  injured. 

5 — Dental   clinic   service   for   employees. 

6 — To   see    that    pure    water    is    provided,    and   that    good    sanitation    is 

maintained  in   the  shop  and  plant. 
7 — To  instruct  employees  in  personal  hygiene. 

IV— WELFARE    DEPARTMENT 

A — Education 

I — To  provide  schooling  for  aliens. 

2 — To   provide   technical  courses   of   instruction   to   train   employees   for 

better   positions. 
3 — To   provide   a   library   for   employees. 
4 — To  publish   a  factory  newspaper  the  aim   of  which  is  to   develop  an 

esprit    de   corps    and   to   stimulate   employees   to    develop    themselves 

along  the  right  lines. 
5 — Suggestion  committee  to  stimulate  the   giving  of  suggestions  by  em- 
ployees  and    reward   for   same. 
B — Recreation 

I — To    organize   sports   and   athletics    for    recreational   purposes    and   to 

develop    a   factory   spirit. 
2 — To  provide  and  maintain  playgrounds  where  employees  live  in  large 

neighborhoods. 
3 — To    organize    and    develop   social   amusements    such    as    dances,    corn 

roasts,  picnics,  field  days,  etc.,  for  the  benefit  of  the  employees  and 

their    friends. 

C— Welfare 

I — To  help  the  employee  solve  his  domestic  and  other  personal  troubles. 

2 — To  teach  housekeeping  and  home  hygiene  in  the  homes  of  em- 
ployees. 

3 — To  follow  up  the  work  of  community  agencies  in  order  to  protect 
the  health,  welfare  and  other  interests  of  employees  and  their 
families. 

4 — To  give  free  legal  aid  and  advice  to  employees  and  to  help  em- 
ployees to  get  out  of  debt  by  securing  the  co-operation  of  creditors 
in   preventing  attachments   and   the   pooling  of  payments,   etc. 

5 — To  aid  aliens  in  raising  their  standards  and  methods  of  living,  to 
advise  and  help  them  in  securing  citizenship  papers  and  to  aid  in 
their    Americanization. 

6 — To  operate  a  housing  bureau  to  secure  houses  and  rooms  for  ern- 
ployees,  and  where  company  has  houses  to  rent  to  supervise  their 
renting,  to  work  for  civic  improvement  and  betterment  of  housing 
conditions,  where  company  has  labor  camps  to  supervise  and  look 
after   same. 

D — Co-operative   Stores 

To  organize  and  operate  a  co-operative  store  for  the  benefit  of  em- 
ployees. 

V— INSURANCE  DEPARTMENT 

A — Accident  Insurance 

Claim   department   to  handle   accident   cases  and  take   care  of   State 
compensation   for  same. 


196  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

B— Insurance    Benefits 

Sickness   and   death   benefits   organized   under   one   of  the   three   fol- 
lowing  plans: 

I — Supported   entirely   by   the   company. 

2 — Supported  jointly   by   the  company  and   employee. 

3 — Supported   entirely   by    employee. 

C — Old  Age  and  Service  Pensiotis 

Provide    retirement    pensions    to    employees    for    long    and    faithful 
service. 

The  work  of  all  the  departments  should  be  made  a  matter  of 
complete  record  and  to  facilitate  doing  this  a  statistical  depart- 
ment should  be  operated  as  a  binder.  This  department  would 
take  care  of  all  the  reports  and  statistical  records  of  all  the  de- 
partments, and  a  central  filing  system  should  be  used  for  keep- 
ing records  of  employees.  A  tabulating  machine  could  be  used 
to  great  advantage  in  preparing  detailed  reports  of  the  work 
and  progress  of  the  various  branches  of  the  work.  Without 
adequate  analytical  records  of  the  work  done  and  results  ob- 
tained, much  time  and  money  could  easily  be  wasted  on  useless 
enterprises.  Unless  the  services  rendered  to  employees  develop 
a  loyal,  contented  working  force  and  furnish  proper  incentives 
to  stimulate  wholehearted  co-operation  from  the  employee,  they 
are  wasted. 

Some  of  the  known  results  from  the  adoption  of  the  fore- 
going plan  either  in  part  or  entirely  have  been  a  reduction  in 
working  time  lost,  a  reduction  in  labor  turnover,  the  elimination 
of  serious  labor  disputes,  the  development  of  esprit  de  corps, 
greater  production,  betterment  of  physical  and  social  conditions 
of  employees,  a  reduction  of  sickness  and  accidents,  and  the 
Americanization  of  aliens. 


PLAYING  FAIR  WITH  THE  WORKERS ' 

The  Personnel  Department 

Broad  minded  leaders  in  the  commercial  world  have  in- 
augurated in  their  establishments  personnel  departments.  These 
divisions,  supervised  by  men  and  women  who  are  specialists  in 
dealing  with  human  nature,  have  brought  about  a  new  era  for 
business.  First  of  all,  they  reflect  in  a  true  light  the  policies  of 
the  houses  they  represent  and  give  the  personal  touch  to  deal- 

*  By  B.  J.  Forman.  Employment  Manager,  Hart,  Shaffner  and  Marx. 
100%.      12:72-6.     February,   1919. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       197 

ings   with  employees   and  applicants  that  great   firms  today  so 
often  lack  because  of  their  very  greatness. 

Second,  centralized  in  the  personnel  bureau  is  not  only  the 
engaging  of  all  help,  but  the  rate  fixing,  salary  increasing,  etc., 
which  releases  department  managers  from  duties  which  very 
often  hindered  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  work  of  super- 
vision. Arbitrary  discharge  of  an  employee  is  a  thing  almost 
unknown,  a  personal  prejudice  on  the  part  of  a  department  head 
no  longer  means  that  an  otherwise  good  worker  must  be  sacri- 
ficed to  satisfy  a  whim. 

Further,  if  a  new  employee  does  not  do  well  on  the  work  to 
which  he  is  originally  assigned  he  does  not  automatically  let 
himself  out,  for  big  business  has  come  to  realize  that  every 
person  actually  engaged  represents  an  investment  and  every  pos- 
sible means  to  realize  on  that  investment  should  be  exhausted 
before  the  person  is  thrown  into  discard. 

What  open  sesame  does  a  personnel  department  possess  that 
enables  it  to  accomplish  the  good  which  it  has  undeniably 
brought  about  wherever  it  exists?  The  answer  is  simple. 
Those  who  have  gone  in  for  this  most  fascinating  of  occupa- 
tions have  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  their  fellow  men  and 
have  made  the  remarkable  discovery  that  employees  are  subject 
to  exactly  the  same  emotions  as  their  employers,  that  they  laugh 
at  the  same  things,  cry  over  the  same  things,  and,  all  in  all,  are 
made  of  pretty  much  the  same  stuff.  They  proceeded  on  the 
hypothesis  that  if  employees  were  treated  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  the  employers  would  like  to  be  treated  if  positions  were 
reversed,  they  could  not  go  wrong.  Acting  on  this  discovery 
has  brought  about  a  fine  freemasonry  between  the  bosses  and 
workers,  which  has  manifested  itself  in  a  larger  and  better  out- 
put wherever  the  seed  has  been  sown. 

It  has  come  about  that  the  new  employee  in  one  of  these 
modern  establishments  is  now  turned  over  to  the  most  capable 
person  in  his  section  for  instruction,  not  to  the  least  competent, 
as  before ;  his  induction  into  the  work  is  gradual,  and  patience 
and  kindness  are  the  watchwords ;  criticism,  if  deserved,  is 
given  in  a  quiet,  constructive  way,  not  as  in  the  old  driving  days 
in  the  hearing  of  co-workers,  a  practice  which  always  defeated 
the  desired  end;  work  well  accomplished  earns  recognition, 
whether  by  the  spoken  word  or  in  the  shape  of  an  increase. 


198  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


The  Workers'  Discoveries 

The  worker  has  discovered,  too,  that  if  his  immediate 
superior  does  him  what  seems  to  be  an  injustice,  he  has  access 
to  some  one  higher  up  for  redress,  for  no  firm  which  practices 
goodwill  ever  permits  a  person  to  leave  with  the  feeling  that  he 
has  not  been  treated  squarely  if  it  can  be  prevented. 

In  analyzing  those  who  work  alongside  of  him,  he  is  struck 
by  the  appalling  lack  of  interest  that  most  men  exhibit  in  their 
work,  and  he  has  found  that  always  the  man  who  docs  the  least, 
who  "wasn't  hired  to  do  this,"  is  the  loudest  in  his  denunciation 
of  his  employers,  is  always  the  moving  factor  in  an  attempted 
strike,  and  is  invariably  the  author  of  anonymous  letters  to  the 
newspapers  about  how  the  capitalists  grind  down  the  working 
man  and  how  little  opportunity  there  is  to  get  ahead  without  a 
pull. 

He  has  had  his  eyes  opened  to  the  fact  that  while  pull  may 
get  a  man  a  job  it  cannot  hold  it  for  him,  and  that  continuitj'  of 
faithful  service,  not  frequent  jumping  from  place  to  place, 
means  more  money  and  better  position,  for  to  his  eternal  regret 
he  has  come  upon  more  mirages  than  oases  in  his  goings  here 
and  there. 

And,  happiest  of  all,  he  has  discovered  that  a  great  big  busi- 
ness has  a  heart  that  beats  for  the  people  who  make  possible  its 
greatness  and  its  bigness.  Both  he  and  the  employer  have  been 
sadly  disillusioned  in  their  belief  that  the  one  could  get  along 
without  the  other.     It  CAN'T  be  done ! 


THE  SUPPLY  OF  WORKERS 

SOURCES  OF  SUPPLY  AND  MEANS  OF 
GETTING  IN  TOUCH  WITH  THEM' 

We  have  been  employing  people,  discharging  them,  and 
training  them,  with  rather  a  selfish  motive.  Now,  it  so  hap- 
pens that  we  are  to-day  perhaps  at  the  beginning  of  a  new 
epoch  in  the  historj^  of  the  work.  We  have  been  for  many 
j'ears  perfecting  machinery.  We  have  perfected  machinery  to 
such  an  extent  that,  if  we  do  not  do  something  to  curtail  and 
control  it,  we  will  lose  or  be  run  over  by  that  machine. 

The  problem  of  educating  the  human  element  or  human  ma- 
chine is  one  which  is  now  before  us,  and  one  which  I  believe 
it  is  strictly  up  to  the  manufacturing  establishments,  all  estab- 
lishments, to  consider.  In  other  words,  they  must  do  their 
share.  It  should  not  be  necessary  for  the  state  to  say :  "You 
must  do  so-and-so."  It  must  be  purely  the  function  of  the 
state  to  tell  us  what  is  advisable  for  us  to  do. 

I  know  a  case  where  a  prominent  man  spent  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  the  development  of  a  machine.  And 
yet  with  that  perfect  machine  they  had  to  discharge  thirty  men 
for  incompetent  operation.  I  asked  him  what  the  machine  cost 
him,  and  he  said  it  was  impossible  to  tell,  but  that  it  was  thous- 
ands of  dollars,  and  it  cost  $i,8oo  to  discharge  thirty  men.  In 
their  work  it  costs  an  average  of  $60  a  man  to  train  even  the 
humblest  employee  (in  other  words,  until  he  has  been  there  six 
or  seven  weeks)  ;  and  this  applies  to  the  smallest  detail  around 
the  plant.  The  man  deliberately  threw  away  $1,800  in  develop- 
ing and  teaching  men  what  they  had  to  do  to  run  that  machine. 
Their  first  step,  therefore,  was  to  run  the  machine  themselves. 

In  addressing  you  on  the  subject  of  sources  of  labor  supply 
and  the  means  of  getting  in  touch  with  them,  it  seems  to  me 
that  before  proceeding  with  the  purely  mechanical  methods  of 
handling  the  labor  department,  a  few  minutes  may  very  profit- 

^  By  H.  B.  Coho.  Director  of  Efficiency,  United  States  Cartridge  Co. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  202.    p.   15-21.    September,   1916. 


200  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

ably  be  given  to  the  consideration  of  the  employment  manager 
as  an  individual,  and  the  type  of  individual  he  necessarily  has  to 
be. 

In  the  first  place,  when  a  man  is  made  an  employment  man- 
ager for  a  corporation  he  should  have  a  distinct  understanding 
with  his  superior  officers  as  to  just  what  his  responsibilities  are 
to  be  and  just  how  far  he  is  expected  to  be  held  responsible  for 
the  character  of  the  people  whom  he  employs.  It  is  manifestly 
impossible  for  an  emploj-ment  manager  to  get  the  best  results 
unless  the  responsibility  for  his  results  is  to  be  up  to  him, 
and  the  responsibility  left  with  him.  If  he  must  employ 
friends  of  the  overseers  or  friends  and  relatives  of 
higher  officials,  his  work  is  necessarily  circumscribed,  and 
he  should  not  be  held  responsible  for  the  results  obtained. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  necessarily  can  not  be  given  all  of  the 
authority  for  obtaining  people  until  he  knows  thoroughly  all 
of  the  departments  and  the  class  of  help  which  they  require. 
Under  these  circumstances  he  should  be  a  man  of  broad  ex- 
perience and  in  a  technical  industry  a  man  of  technical  educa- 
tion. He  should  also  be  a  man  who  has,  to  a  large  extent,  had 
a  good  deal  of  practical  experience,  so  that  the  plans  which  he 
develops  will  be  based  on  good  common  sense  and  obtain  the 
results  which  he  is  looking  for. 

Probably  the  best  method  for  any  employment  manager  in 
large  industrial  plants  employing  people  is  the  conference  plan 
— an  association  of  overseers  should  be  formed,  and  they 
should  meet  at  least  once  a  week  in  industries  where  the  flow 
of  help  is  large  and  should  frankly  criticize  the  employment 
manager  for  the  class  of  help  that  he  has  procured  for  them. 
This  method  is  employed  by  a  great  many  large  industrial  cor- 
porations and  is  working  out  very  satisfactorily.  At  these  meet- 
ings the  record  of  the  people  who  have  been  employed  should 
be  taken,  and  the  overseers  should  report  their  satisfaction  or 
dissatisfaction  with  the  people  obtained,  pointing  out  wherein 
people  thus  obtained  had  failed. 

In  other  words,  to  my  mind,  no  one  individual  about  a  plant 
should  endeavor  to  run  the  entire  place  without  consulting 
freely  with  all  his  associates. 

A  thing  which  should  always  be  done  at  these  conferences  is 
to  keep  minutes,  which  should  be  written  out  and  handed  to  the 
members  of  the  committee,  so  that  they  may  come  prepared  to 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        201 

take  part  in  the  discussion  and  to  say  definitely  whether  the  re- 
marks attributed  to  them  were  made  or  not. 

To  my  mind  the  most  important  thing  about  any  labor  bureau 
or  employment  manager  is  that  he  outlines  his  policy;  that  he 
prepares  a  very  definite  type  o£  application  blank  and  that  he 
has  always  in  mind  the  fact  that  he  is  clearing  house  for  all 
the  labor  throughout  the  plant ;  that  he  must  therefore  be  un- 
trammeled  by  rules  and  regulations  or  favorites. 

An  employment  manager's  department  is  rather  a  new  thing 
in  some  of  our  industries,  although  it  has  been  used  abroad  and 
has  been  used  here  among  the  larger  industries.  It  would  seem 
to  me  that  eventually  the  smaller  concerns  can  unite  and  form 
a  mutual  employment  bureau,  thus  dividing  up  the  expense  in 
obtaining  those  records  of  their  people  which  are  absolutely  es- 
sential if  they  wish  to  obtain  the  best  results. 

Returning  now  to  the  subject  assigned  to  me — that  is,  the 
source  of  supply — would  say  that,  of  course,  naturally  you  all 
wish  to  obtain  as  much  of  your  labor  from  your  immediate  com- 
munity as  you  possibly  can.  This  means  that  if  there  are  three 
or  four  of  the  same  lines  of  industry  in  a  town  that  there  is 
more  or  less  competition  for  the  help,  and  that  the  home  market 
soon  becomes  exhausted.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  a  bet- 
ter plan  is  rather  to  set  jour  standard  at  a  scale  of  wages  so  as 
to  attract  people  to  you.  Probably  the  best  method  of  attracting 
people  to  a  plant  is  to  have  a  consistent  management.  You  will 
usually  find  that  concerns  whose  overseers  do  not  change  and 
who  have  a  steady,  consistent  management,  without  rules  or 
regulations  changing  very  often,  have  far  Jess  trouble  than 
some  of  our  modern  concerns,  who  endeavor  to  work  out  a 
great  many  theories  on  their  employees. 

Personally  I  feel  that  the  extremely  definite  policy  as  to  the 
wages  paid  and  what  would  be  expected  from  the  employees 
should  be  decided  upon  and  published  in  some  factory  organ, 
and  that  very  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  change  over- 
seers or  change  rules  and  regulations  without  a  definite  period 
for  the  change  to  go  into  effect. 

Employees  are  human,  and  probably  one  of  the  most  prized 
theories  is  consistency,  which,  unfortunately,  many  of  us  are 
absolutely  void  of ;  but  in  handling  bodies  of  men  and  women 
there  seems  to  be  nothing  which  gets  their  loyalty  and  their  sup- 
port so  much  as  absolutely  consistent  plans.     This  can  readily 


202  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

be  understood  when  you  find  so  many  people  who  prefer  to  take 
a  set  salary,  even  though  it  be  small,  rather  than  run  any  risk. 
Probably  the  feminine  side  of  the  family  is  somewhat  respon- 
sible for  this,  as  most  of  the  ladies  prefer  to  know  exactly 
what  their  income  is  and  to  live  within  it  rather  than  to  take  a 
chance  of  uncertain  returns. 

Where  your  plant  is  the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  j'our  com- 
munity your  problem  is  not  so  great,  but  even  then  the  most 
successful  concern  will  be  the  one  which  changes  its  rules  and 
regulations  the  least  often  and  builds  up  a  reputation  for  stand- 
ard methods,  both  among  its  executive  staff  and  among  its  em- 
ployees. 

Another  source  of  supply  which  is  rather  important  is  that 
of  the  friends  of  your  workers.  It  becomes  necessary  at  times 
to  ask  your  people  to  bring  in  their  friends,  and  naturally  they 
will  bring  them  to  those  places  where  the  character  of  the  em- 
ployees is  of  the  best.  The  best  plan  for  this  sort  of  thing  is 
the  plan  of  a  great  many  different  societies  and  clubs  in  the 
organizations,  so  that  your  employees  talk  about  their  work  at 
home  and  are  proud  of  it.  Baseball  clubs,  bowling  clubs,  fire 
departments,  weekly  dances,  and  all  that  goes  with  social  ac- 
tivity appeals  to  me  strongly,  whether  the  organizations  be  in 
a  large  or  small  town,  for  the  reason  that  advertising  naturally 
pays,  and  when  you  find  the  people  in  a  plant  playing  together 
as  well  as  working  together  you  find  that  they  will  attract  to 
you  a  very  much  better  class  of  people,  providing,  of  course, 
that  the  original  foundation  is  right.  Right  here  let  me  say 
that  I  do  not  believe  too  much  stress  can  be  placed  upon  the 
character  of  your  employees.  I  believe  that  it  is  essential  that 
every  employment  manager  be  a  man  of  very  high  ideals,  a  man 
of  very  noble  motives,  and  one  utterly  devoid  of  the  money- 
making  instinct,  because  it  follows  that  he  must  become,  if  he 
does  his  work  at  all  well,  the  "father  confessor"  of  the  entire 
plant,  and  therefore  he  must  be  a  man  of  entirely  unselffish 
ideas. 

Where  a  plant  is  in  an  outlying  community  and  the  em- 
ployees are  dependent  upon  themselves  for  their  amusements, 
the  problem  then  simply  becomes  one  of  proper  guidance. 

Right  here  let  me  touch  upon  a  very  great  responsibility 
which  comes  to  employment  managers  and  those  attracting 
people   from    outlying  towns   and   communities.     When   j-ou   go 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  203 

away  from  your  home  town  for  employees,  it  is  essential  that 
you  make  only  such  promises  as  to  work  and  methods  of  leav- 
ing as  can  be  absolutely  fulfilled,  and  every  employment  manager 
should  see  that  he  does  not  attract  people  to  his  plant  by  mis- 
representation or  by  over-representing  the  attractions  offered. 
He  will  win  out  in  this  once,  but  never  the  second  time.  If  he 
only  requires  a  certain  amount  of  help  for  a  given  time,  let  him 
state  it  frankly,  because,  to  my  mind,  nothing  will  so  much  in- 
terfere with  the  reputation  of  a  plant  as  an  employment  man- 
ager who  will  get  people  to  leave  one  job  to  go  to  him  and  after 
a  week  or  two  allow  them  to  go.  If  this  is  done  more  than 
once,  his  reputation  and  that  of  his  plant  will  suffer,  and  in 
times  of  stress  his  results  will  be  most  unsatisfactory. 

Another  most  important  matter  is  that  of  taking  people  away 
from  competitors.  Here,  I  think,  the  employment  manager  has  a 
tremendous  opportunity,  and  your  association  particularly  can 
serve  the  community  and  the  public,  at  the  same  time  being 
fair  to  the  employees.  It  is  manifestly  unfair  to  say  to  a  man 
because  he  works  for  a  competitor  that  he  can  not  be  employed 
by  you.  A  fair  proposition,  to  my  mind,  would  be  for  the  em- 
ployment managers  of  two  competing  concerns  to  arrive  at  a 
definite  understanding  between  themselves  as  to  the  requisite 
notice  which  an  employee  should  give  before  leaving  to  go  with 
the  competitor.  Manifestly,  there  are  many  times  when  a  man 
can  learn  his  work  in  one  concern  and  then  sell  his  services  to 
a  competitor  at  a  higher  price,  and  it  seems  only  fair  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  do  this,  providing  it  is  done  openly  on  a 
fair  basis.  To  my  mind,  the  most  unwholesome  thing  that 
can  creep  into  these  organizations  is  the  taking  of  employees 
away  from  each  other  under  purely  a  wage  basis,  as  usually 
the  man  who  will  leave  one  concern  to  go  with  anotlier  for  a 
purely  money  consideration  will  be  just  as  dissatisfied  in  his 
new  place  as  he  was  in  the  old,  whereas  if  he  leaves  them  on 
a  friendly  basis,  giving  his  old  concern  as  a  reference,  and  feel- 
ing that  he  can  go  back  there  if  he  is  not  entirely  happy  in  his 
new  environment,  it  will  make  for  contentment,  which  is  the 
secret  of  successful  work. 

The  schools  as  a  source  of  supply  are  always  the  fundamental 
sources  to  be  considered.  Many  of  our  young  people  can  go 
through  only  the  public  school,  and  it  should  be  the  work  of 
the  employment  manager  to  advertise  his  place  as  a  place  where 


204  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

pupils  of  this  character  can  be  given  work  and  an  opportunity 
to  progress. 

We  are  starting  at  our  plant  a  series  of  classes  so  that  when 
a  young  man  or  a  young  woman  with  a  grammar-school  edu- 
cation comes  to  us,  he  or  she  must,  as  a  part  of  his  or  her 
work,  take  a  half  hour's  course  each  day  in  the  fundamental 
rudiments  of  education.  This  is  done  on  the  company's  time, 
but  the  employees  must  consider  it  part  of  their  work.  This, 
to  my  mind,  is  probably  a  little  drastic  for  some  organizations, 
but  I  believe  it  will  be  made  a  requirement  by  the  state  before 
many  generations  have  passed,  and  is  therefore  a  matter  which 
can  be  considered  by  you  men  at  this  time,  as  it  must  come 
eventually. 

The  very  complexity  of  our  social  organizations  makes  it 
essential  that  eventually  all  of  our  people  must  be  taught  to 
think  in  order  to  maintain  our  form  of  Government.  Therefore 
the  responsibility  of  the  manufacturing  plant  to  the  C' immunity 
must  not  be  overlooked. 

What  you  do  for  the  grammar-school  people  must  also  be 
done  for  the  high  school  and  the  college  graduates.  They  must 
be  given  an  opportunity  to  learn  and  to  keep  their  minds  pli- 
able. While  some  are  quite  interested  in  progressing  along  edu- 
cational lines,  others  will  become  dilatory  and  drop  back  unless 
this  work  is  more  or  less  compulsory. 

It  is  manifestly  certain  that  our  type  of  Government  must 
continue,  and  if  our  type  of  Government  is  to  continue,  it  is 
equally  certain  that  our  voters  must  be  able  to  decide  for  them- 
selves on  the  plan  of  government.  Therefore  it  is  essential 
that  manufacturing  establishments  employing  thousands  of 
people  must  constantly  bring  before  their  minds  their  respon- 
sibility to  the  state,  to  themselves,  and  to  their  associates.  This 
can  only  be  done  along  stated  lines  by  means  of  factory  pub- 
lications and  the  employment  of  high-class  men. 

A  source  of  supply  which  is  used  very  largely  is  the  em- 
ployment agency.  This,  of  course,  is  only  of  as  much  value  as 
the  character  of  the  man  running  it  is  equal  to  his  responsibility. 
These  agencies  often  serve  a  very  good  purpose,  but  great  care 
must  be  taken  in  the  character  of  your  employment  agents. 

Charitable  institutions  which  make  a  business  of  finding 
employment  for  the  more  or  less  unfortunate  are  another 
source   of   supply.     Usually  help     obtained    from   these   institu- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        205 

tions  are  people  who  have  made  failures  in  very  nearly  every- 
thing, and  naturally  their  work  should  be  carefully  supervised 
until  such  a  time  as  they  reach  a  point  where  they  may  be  cred- 
ited. This  applies  also  to  probationers.  Care  should  be  taken 
to  see  that  these  people  are  given  work  which  will  interest  them. 
Very  many  of  our  probationers,  particularly  men  and  boys, 
have  gone  bad  simply  because  their  energies  were  not  sufficiently 
employed  and  their  imaginations  became  diseased.  Many  of 
these  people  can  be  interested  and  become  very  good,  useful  citi- 
zens if  they  are  kept  active  and  not  held  down  to  class  rules 
and  regulations.  Therefore  an  employment  manager  must  pro- 
vide some  outlet  for  these  activities.  Usually  baseball  and 
bowling  clubs  and  things  of  this  nature  can  be  used  to  good 
advantage. 

The  last  source  of  supply  which  I  was  asked  to  talk  about 
is  that  of  previous  employees,  people  that  have  already  been 
employed  by  you.  This  is  a  big  problem  which  we  all  have 
before  us.  Let  people  feelthat,  having  been  employed  by  you, 
and  having  left  in  good  standing,  there  is  a  place  for  them.  I 
am  a  great  believer  in  the  Sabbatical  year.  I  do  not  think  it  is 
a  good  thing  to  say  that  John  has  worked  for  you  30  years, 
because  John  may  have  been  asleep  for  25  years.  Their  work 
must  have  been  so  good  that  we  are  glad  to  have  them  back. 
For  an  organization  to  say  that  they  have  a  waiting  list  of  old 
employees  is  one  of  the  biggest  recommendations  a  concern 
can  have,  a  waiting  list  of  old  employees  who  are  satisfied  with 
the  policy  of  the  concern  and  are  anxious  to  work  for  that 
concern  again. 

On  the  question  of  rehiring  old  employees,  I  feel  that  any 
man  who  leaves  in  good  standing  should  have  the  privilege  of 
returning  and  going  to  work  if  his  record  is  satisfactory;  in 
fact,  we  are  starting  a  waiting  list  along  these  lines.  Often  men 
leave,  thinking  that  they  will  better  themselves  or  attracted  by 
a  small  increase  in  pay,  and  find  that  there  are  other  things 
which  are  not  so  satisfactory.  Now  if  these  men  have  worked 
out  their  notice,  which,  by  the  way,  should  be  definitely  stated 
when  they  are  hired,  I  see  no  reason  why  they  should  not  con- 
stitute your  waiting  list.  You  have  trained  them  and  with  the 
added  experience  they  have  had  outside  they  should  be  of  far 
more  value. 

Personally,  I  think  that  a  list  should  always  be  kept  of  eli- 


2o6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

gible  employees  to  whom  the  job  should  first  be  given.  Above 
all,  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  take  in  from  the  out- 
side any  men,  when  you  have  on  the  inside  people  who  can  fill 
the  positions. 

I  believe  that  a  hard  and  fast  civil-service  school  should  be 
maintained.  I  believe  that  the  better  positions  should  be  a  mat- 
ter of  competitive  examination,  and  that  a  man  who  feels  that 
he  is  capable  of  taking  a  higher  position  should  submit  his 
record  and  his  abilities  to  the  test.  I  believe  that  this  can  be 
accomplished  by  having  a  works  board,  who  will  hold  these 
particular  examinations. 

If  it  .is  manifestly  impossible  to  obtain  a  man  for  a  certain 
job,  it  should  be  advertised  around  the  plant  that  such  a  place 
is  open  and  what  the  requirements  are,  and  that  if  no  man  from 
the  plant  can  convince  the  factory  board  as  to  his  eligibility, 
then  at  a  given  time  the  position  will  be  filled.  This  follows 
out  my  original  remarks  as  to  character  and  reputation  of  the 
plant. 

The  employment  manager  should  be  one  of  the  main  men  in 
any  organization.  He  should  be  selected  for  his  experience  and 
for  his  character.  He  should  not  be  too  young  a  man.  If  you 
desire  to  build  up  a  plant  for  a  great  many  years'  time,  a  j'oung 
hustling  man  may  succeed  in  drawing  a  great  many  people 
around  him,  but  I  question  whether  he  will  have  the  balance  and 
the  poise  to  hold  them  and  get  the  best  results. 

Once  again  I  say  that  an  employment  manager  must  be  ex- 
tremely careful  of  his  personal  habits,  as  his  example  will  be 
noted  just  as  is  that  of  a  schoolmaster. 

He  should  visit  many  other  plants  and  he  should  talk  with 
his  fellow  employment  managers,  through  his  association  or 
otherwise,  constantly.  He  must  be  in  close  touch  and  sympa- 
thy with  all  the  employees'  activities,  and  will  have  a  job  which 
will  keep  him  busy  all  his  waking  hours,  but  he  will  get  his 
return  in  the  gratitude  of  the  community  which  he  serves  and 
be  properly  recompensed  by  the  company  who  employs  him. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  207 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  TRADE  TEST  (U.  S.  Army)' 

[Note:  Out  of  every  hundred  soldiers  an  average  of  twenty-five  must 
be  specialists,  skilled  in  a  particular  trade.  The  trades  range  from  auto- 
mobile driver  and  barber  to  typist  and  wireman.  The  old  way  to  get  these 
specialists  was  to  make  them  to  order;  almost  any  intelligent  man  was  ac- 
ceptable raw  material.  This  method  is  impossible  for  an  army  whose  divi- 
sions are  molded  and  sent  overseas  in  a  few  months.  The  specialists  must 
be  found  ready  made,  and  found  quickly.  They  must  be  good  at  their 
trades,  and  it  must  be  known  just  how  good  they  are.  Hence  it  becomes 
vitally  necessary  that  the  trade  tests  that  measure  the  skill  of  men  at  their 
trades  should  be  devised  with  painstaking  care  and  should  be  thoroughly 
proved   to   be    both   practical   and   practicable.] 

Many  persons  have  viewed  with  some  skepticism  the  idea  that 
a  workman's  degree  of  skill  at  his  trade  can  be  determined  by 
tests  that  require  but  a  few  minutes.  A  month,  they  argue,  is 
little  enough  for  an  expert  foreman  to  classify  justly  the  men 
under  him  after  observing  their  skill  with  his  own  eyes.  When 
it  is  proposed  that  those  who  apply  the  tests  for  any  trade  need 
not  be  skilled  in  it  themselves  and  may  in  fact  know  nothing 
whatever  about  it,  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  doubt  its  practicabil- 
ity. 

It  may  be  agreed  that  it  would  be  well  if  the  Army  could  let 
a  man  show  his  skill  by  actual  work  at  his  trade  under  expert 
supervision  for  several  weeks.  This  process  is  too  long  and  too 
costly  to  be  even  considered  for  Army  use.  The  Personnel 
office  must  handle  and  classify  a  constant  stream  of  newly-en- 
listed men — sometimes  over  a  thousand  a  day.  Unless  this  office 
is  willing  to  take  a  man's  word  or  the  record  of  his  experience 
as  sufficient  evidence  of  his  skill — and  it  has  been  repeatedly 
shown  that  these  are  not  to  be  depended  upon  with  certainty — 
then  some  form  of  trade  test  is  a  necessity. 

Right  here  it  may  be  stated  that  the  trade  tests  at  present  in 
use  are  successful.  Officers  in  charge  of  units  almost  invariably 
say  that  the  soldiers  picked  by  the  tests  and  assigned  to  them  as 
skilled  specialists  actually  have  the  degree  of  skill  required  and 
that  their  later  performance  is  giving  satisfaction.  Why  this 
seemingly  miraculous  result  is  only  natural  can  easily  be  under- 
stood by  anyone  who  has  had  the  opportunity  to  see  how  the 
trade  tests  are  devised  and  how  they  are  thoroughly  proved  in 
actual  practice  before  being  adopted  for  general  use  in  Person- 
nel offices. 

*  From  Perionnel  (War  Department).    Washington.    October  2,  1918. 


2o8  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


Requirements  of  a  Trade  Test 

When  the  problem  of  formulating  tests  was  analyzed,  it  was 
seen  that  certain  requirements  were  fundamental.  The  trade 
tests,  to  be  absolutely  satisfactory. 

1.  Must  differentiate  between  the  various  grades  of  skill: 

2.  Must  produce  uniform  results  in  various  places  and  in 
the  hands  of  individuals  of  widely  different  characteristics : 

3.  Must  consume  the  least  amount  of  time  and  energy  con- 
sistent with  the  best  results. 

Now  it  must  be  recognized  that  trades  useful  in  the  Army  are 
of  many  kinds  and  of  widely  differing  requirements.  Trade 
ability  in  any  one  of  them,  however,  means  about  the  same  thing. 
It  means  that  the  workman  is  not  simply  the  possessor  of  a 
single  item  of  information,  nor  simply  able  to  execute  one  par- 
ticular movement  required  by  the  trade,  but  that  he  has  many 
items  of  information  more  or  less  systematized  together  with 
the  ability  to  execute  various  movements  not  only  singly  but  in 
combinations. 

While  there  are  all  degrees  of  trade  ability  among  the  mem- 
bers of  any  trade,  it  is  convenient  to  classify  them  in  a  few 
main  groups.  Ordinarily  the  terms  Novice,  Apprentice,  Jour- 
neyman and  Journeyman  Expert  (or  Expert)  are  employed. 
The  Novice  is  a  man  who  has  no  trade  ability  whatever,  or  at 
least  none  that  could  not  be  paralleled  by  practically  any  intel- 
ligent man.  The  Apprentice  has  acquired  some  of  the  elements 
of  the  trade  but  is  not  sufficiently  skilled  to  be  entrusted  with 
any  important  task.  The  Journeyman  is  qualified  to  perform 
almost  any  work  done  by  members  of  the  trade.  The  Expert 
can  perform  quickly  and  with  superior  skill  any  work  done  by 
men  in  the  trade. 

It  is  sometimes  desirable  that  the  trade  test  should  differ- 
entiate between  the  skill  of  different  members  of  the  same 
group;  for  instance,  the  journeyman  group.  It  is  essential  that 
it  should  differentiate  between  the  journeyman  and  the  appren- 
tice, and  the  apprentice  and  the  novice.  Trade  tests  devised  to 
make  this  classification  are  of  three  kinds:  oral,  picture  and  per- 
formance. 

The  oral  tests  are  most  generally  used  because  they  are  of 
low  cost  and  they  may  be  applied  to  a  large  number  of  men  in  a 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        209 

comparatively  short  time  and  without  much  equipment.  They 
are  satisfactorj'  in  determining  the  presence  or  absence  of  trade 
abiHty  and  in  many  instances  determine  the  degree  of  abiUty  with 
such  accuracy  that  no  other  tests  are  required. 

An  oral  trade  test  is  developed  by  passage  through  12  stages : 
I  Priority;  2  Assignment;  3  Inquiry;  4  Collection;  5  Compila- 
tion; 6  Preliminary  sampling;  7  Revision;  8  Formulation;  9 
Final  sampling;  10  Evaluation;  11  Calibration;  12  Editing. 

Collecting  the  Trade  Information 

From  time  to  time  the  Personnel  Organization  of  the  Army 
submits  to  the  Central  Trade  Test  Office  (Newark,  N.J.)  a  list 
of  trades  which  are  required  in  Army  use  and  for  which  tests 
are  urgently  needed.  Upon  the  basis  of  this  list,  assignments  are 
made  to  the  field  staff. 

The  field  staff  then  makes  thorough  inquiry  into  the  condi- 
tions of  the  trade.     Their  purpose  is  three-fold : 

1.  To  determine  the  feasibility  of  a  test  in  this  field.  Does 
the  trade  actually  exist  as  a  recognized  trade?  It  was  found, 
for  example,  that  the  trade  of  gunsmith  was  not  a  recognized 
trade,  though  there  were  gun  repairers. 

2.  To  determine  the  elements  which  require  and  permit  of 
testing.  In  other  words,  can  men  be  graded  in  it  according  to 
degrees  of  skill?  In  some  trades  it  was  found  that  the  trade 
required  simply  the  performance  of  a  single  set  of  operations 
and  there  were  no  gradations  among  the  members  of  the  trade. 

3.  To  determine  the  kinds  of  tests  that  can  be  used.  Some 
trades,  such  as  truck  driving  and  typewriting,  are  mainly  matters 
of  skill  and  for  them  performance  tests  are  better  than  oral 
tests.  Other  trades,  such  as  interior  wiring  and  power  plant 
operation,  are  mainly  matters  of  knowledge.  For  these  trades 
oral  and  picture  tests  are  best. 

After  having  discovered  by  inquiry  that  the  trade  is  a  recog- 
nized trade  and  can  be  tested,  the  field  staff  proceeds  to  collect 
all  the  information  necessary  from  all  available  sources;  for  ex- 
ample, experts  of  the  trade,  trade  union  officials,  literature  of 
the  trade,  trade  school  authorities,  employers  and  the  like.  They 
discover  by  this  means  what  are  the  elements  of  the  trade  and 
what  constitutes  proficiency  in  it. 


210  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


Compiling  the  Questions 

As  a  result  of  this  collection  of  information  they  are  able  to 
compile  a  number  of  questions,  usually  forty  to  sixty,  each  of 
which  calls  for  an  answer  that  shows  knowledge  of  the  trade. 
Experience  in  the  formulation  of  such  questions  has  shown  that 
a  good  question  meets  the  following  requirements : 

1.  It  must  be  in  the  language  of  the  trade; 

2.  It  must  be  a  unit,  complete  in  itself  and  requiring  no  ex- 
planation ; 

3.  It  must  not  be  a  chance  question  which  could  be  an- 
swered by  a  good  guess.  The  extreme  example  would  be  a 
question  calling  for  the  answer  "yes"  or  "no" ; 

4.  It  must  be  as  short  as  possible  and  must  be  capable  of 
being  answered  by  a  very  short  answer; 

5.  It  must  not  be  ambiguous ;  the  meaning  must  be  unmis- 
takable. 

After  the  large  number  of  questions  originally  formulated 
has  been  sifted  down  by  application  of  the  requirements  stated 
above  and  others  of  less  importance  they  are  used  in  a  prelim- 
inary sampling  on  a  number  of  tradesmen,  usually  nine  to  twelve, 
whose  answers  indicate  the  merits  of  the  different  questions  and 
their  grades  from  easy  to  difficult.  In  this  sampling,  tradesmen 
from  different  shops  or  plants  are  tried,  in  order  to  guard 
against  specialized  methods  or  modes  of  expression  confined  to 
a  single  locality.  At  least  two  examiners  work  on  each  set  of 
questions  at  this  stage  to  get  the  benefit  of  more  than  one  point 
of  view  for  revision. 

This  preliminary  sampling  affords  a  means  of  checking  on 
the  following  points : 

1.  Is  the  test  applicable  to  trade  conditions? 

2.  Does  the  test  represent  good  trade  practice? 

3.  In  what  way  can  parts  be  profitably  modified,  supple- 
mented or  eliminated? 

4.  Does  the  test  represent  the  whole  range  of  the  trade  from 
the  novice  to  the  expert? 

5.  Is  it  a  representative  sampling  of  the  whole  range  of  trade 
processes? 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        211 

In  the  light  of  the  answers  to  these  questions,  the  test  is  re- 
vised during  this  sampling  process  and  is  then  ready  to  be 
formulated.  This  formulation  consists  of  limiting  the  questions 
to  a  small  enough  number  to  be  handled  in  a  short  space  of  time 
and  to  a  wide  enough  range  to  represent  every  possible  degree 
of  trade  skill.  The  questions  are  tabulated  and  are  then  ready 
to  be  used  in  the  final  sampling  process. 

Final  Sampling 

Final  sampling  is  made  by  testing  twenty  men  who  are  known 
to  be  typical  representatives  of  each  group  (novice,  apprentice, 
journeyman,  expert).  Among  the  novices  tested  are  some  highly 
intelligent  and  mature  men  of  good  general  knowledge  but  no 
trade  ability.  Three  testing  stations  are  used:  one  in  Cleveland, 
one  in  Newark,  and  one  in  Pittsburgh,  in  order  to  get  the  ben- 
efit of  wide  geographical  distribution.  Examinations  are  given  to 
men  whose  record  in  the  trade  is  already  known  and  who  are 
tested  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  same  manner  as  men  in  the 
camps. 

The  results  of  this  final  sampling  are  now  turned  over  to  the 
Statistical  Department  of  the  Central  Trade  Test  Office.  The 
experts  in  this  department  make  a  careful  study  of  the  results 
and  of  the  answers  to  each  question.  This  enables  them  to  de- 
termine the  relative  value  of  each  individual  question  and  the 
selection  that  makes  a  proper  balance. 

Evaluating  the  Test 

If  a  Trade  Test  is  good,  a  known  expert,  when  tested,  is  able 
to  answer  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  questions  correctly;  a  journey- 
man is  able  to  answer  the  majority;  an  apprentice  a  smaller 
part,  and  a  novice  practically  none.  This  does  not  mean  that 
each  question  should  be  answered  correctly  by  all  the  experts,  a 
majority  of  the  journeyman,  some  apprentices  but  no  novices. 
There  are  a  few  questions  which  show  this  general  result.  A 
graphic  curve  when  plotted  for  such  a  question  is  almost  a 
straight  line. 

Other  types  of  questions,  however,  are  more  common.  Some 
show  a  distinct  line  of  cleavage  between  the  novice  and  the  ap- 
prentice. Novices  fail,  but  apprentices,  journeymen  and  experts 
alike  answer  correctly.    There  are  likewise  questions  that  are  an- 


212  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

swered  correctly  by  nearly  all  journeymen  and  experts  but  only 
a  few  apprentices,  and  questions  that  only  an  expert  can  answer 
correctly. 

Each  type  of  question  has  its  value  in  a  good  test.  The  main 
requirement  is  that  the  tendency  of  the  curve  should  be  upward; 
a  question  which  is  answered  correctly  by  more  journeymen 
than  experts  or  more  apprentices  than  journeymen  is  undesir- 
able and  is  at  once  discarded.  A  proper  balance  is  made  of  the 
others. 

Calibrating  the  Test 

One  task  still  remains ;  namely,  that  of  calibrating  the  test. 
As  each  question  is  allowed  four  points,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
determine  how  many  points  should  indicate  an  expert,  how  many 
a  journeyman,  etc.  Obviously  the  way  to  do  this  is  to  note  how 
many  points  were  scored  by  the  known  experts  and  the  known 
journeymen  when  they  were  tested.  Ordinarily  the  expert  scores 
higher  than  the  journeyman  and  the  journeyman  higher  than 
the  apprentice.  It  frequently  happens  that  a  few  journeymen 
score  as  high  as  the  lowest  of  the  experts  and  a  few  apprentices 
as  high  as  the  lowest  of  the  journeymen.  There  are  consequently 
certain  overlappings  between  the  classes.  In  calibrating,  the  ob- 
ject is  to  draw  the  dividing  line  between  classes  so  that  the  over- 
lapping shall  be  as  small  as  possible. 

When  these  dividing  lines,  or  critical  scores  as  they  are 
usually  called,  are  established,  the  test  is  ready  for  editing,  print- 
ing and  distribution  to  camps. 

Picture  and  Performance  Tests 

Picture  tests  are  made  in  practically  the  same  way  as  oral 
tests.  The  peculiar  characteristic  of  picture  tests  is  that  the 
questions  making  up  the  tests  relate  to  illustrations  of  trade  tools 
and  appliances. 

The  performance  tests  are  now  being  used  in  many  trades 
for  those  who  make  a  satisfactory  showing  in  the  oral  or  picture 
tests.  These  performance  tests  are  devised  by  conference  with 
experts  in  the  trade.  They  consist  of  some  apparently  simple 
tasks  that  can  be  performed  quickly  and  with  a  small  amount  of 
apparatus  but  that  nevertheless  indicate  clearly  the  degree  of 
skill  of  the  performer.     As  a  result  of  experience  the  following 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        213 

have  been  drawn  up  as  the  requirements  for  a  good  performance 
test: 

1.  It  should  require  the  smallest  possible  quantity  of  tools 
and  materials  and  these  should  be  capable  of  standardization ; 

2.  A  journeyman  should  not  require  more  than  45  minutes 
to  perform  it; 

3.  It  should  be  typical  of  the  work  required; 

4.  The  operations  should  be  exact  so  that  a  standard  cor- 
rect form  of  product  is  always  obtainable. 

Performance  tests  undergo  much  the  same  processes  of 
sampling  as  do  the  oral  and  picture  tests  and  they  are  calibrated 
in  the  same  way.  The  principle  followed  here,  as  elsewhere,  is 
that  the  value  of  a  test  lies  not  in  its  theoretical  exactness  but  in 
its  proved  ability  to  pick  out  and  classify  correctly  men  of  all 
degree  of  skill  within  the  trade.  If  the  test  does  classify  men 
in  the  groups  in  which  they  are  known  to  belong,  then  it  can  be 
relied  upon  to  classify  correctly  men  about  whom  nothing  is 
known  in  advance. 

THE  RATING  SCALE:    INSTRUCTIONS' 
/.     The  Rating  Scale 

The  rating  scale  is  a  practical  system  by  means  of  which  an 
officer's  capacity  and  fitness  for  promotion  can  be  gauged 
quickly,  accurately  and  with  uniformity  and  justice. 

The  rating  itself  is  a  numerical  expression  of  the  degree  in 
which  an  officer  possesses  the  military  qualifications  deemed  most 
essential :  Physical  fitness,  inteUigence,  leadership,  personal  qual- 
ities, general  value  to  the  service. 

The  degree  to  which  he  meets  these  qualifications  is  de- 
termined by  comparison  with  officers  of  the  next  higher  rank. 
Every  officer  is  measured  in  terms  of  the  actual  ability  and  per- 
formance of  other  officers. 

Where  instructions  are  followed  closely  the  results  show  a 
high  degree  of  accuracy  and  uniformity.  The  total  average 
ratings  of  widely  separated  camps  have  shown  a  variation  of 
less  than  one  point  in  a  hundred.  The  rating  scale  is  a  constant 
and  reliable  gauge  of  an  officer's  merit. 

No  system  has  yet  been  devised  which  so  completely  elimi- 

^  War  Department.  Commissioned  Personnel  Branch.  Operations  Di- 
vision.    General  Staff. 


214  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

nates  the  personal  equation  or  so  justl}'  determines  merit.  Be- 
cause the  rating  scale  calls  attention  separately  to  each  of  the 
several  essential  qualifications  for  an  officer,  it  lessens  the  danger 
that  judgments  may  be  based  on  minor  defects,  with  a  corre- 
sponding disregard  of  important  virtues. 

It  takes  approximately  twenty  minutes  to  create  a  working 
scale  and  sixty  seconds  to  make  a  rating. 

Every  officer  will  be  rated  by  his  immediate  superior. 

//.     Importance  of  Rating 

General  Orders  No.  78  directs  that  promotion  in  the  Army 
shall  be  by  selection.  General  Orders  No.  85  directs  that  the 
selection  shall  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  rating  scale.  Ratings 
determine  also  probations  and  discharges,  and  are  important 
factors  in  assignments  and  promotions.  The  efficiency  of  the 
entire  commissioned  personnel  is  thus  directly  connected  with 
accurate  ratings.  A  carelessly  rated  officer  not  only  suffers  per- 
sonal injustice,  but  he  is  almost  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  mis- 
placed, and  be  either  a  good  man  wasted,  or  an  incompetent  man 
so  advanced  that  he  becomes  a  source  of  weakness  and  danger. 

The  responsibility  for  accurate  ratings  is,  therefore,  one  of 
the  most  serious  duties  of  an  officer,  and  it  is  of  utmost  im- 
portance that  each  officer  follow  the  instructions  precisely. 

///.     Instructions  for  Preparing  the  Rating  Scale 

1.  Make  a  list  of  a  dozen  or  more  officers  well  known  to  you, 
of  your  own  rank  and,  if  possible,  not  above  the  average  age  of 
your  rank.  This  list  must  include  all  grades  of  merit  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest.  It  serves  merely  as  a  convenient  re- 
minder of  names  to  be  used  for  making  the  scale. 

2.  Disregarding  all  other  characteristics,  select  from  this  list 
the  man  who  in  regard  to  his  physical  qualities  more  strongly 
impresses  his  men  than  any  of  the  others  on  your  list.  Write 
his  name  or  initials  on  the  line  marked  Highest  (See  accom- 
panying Rating  Scale  Form  below).  On  the  line  marked  Lowest 
put  the  name  of  the  man  who  is  most  deficient  in  this  respect. 
Put  the  middle  or  average  man  on  the  third  line  and  the  men 
who  in  physical  qualities  rank  half  way  between  the  middle  and 
the  extremes  on  the  other  two  lines.      (The  highest  man   will 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        215 

be  represented  by  a  numerical  value  of  15,  the  high  man  12,  the 
middle  9,  the  low  6  and  the  lowest  3). 

Proceed  similarly  in  constructing  scales  for  the  other  four 
qualities.     Do  not  use  the  same  set  of  names  for  all  qualities. 

3.  The  name  selected  for  the  highest  and  lowest  places  on 
the  scale  must  represent  extreme  cases,  the  best  and  the  worst 
of  your  own  rank  that  you  have  ever  known.  Be  sure  also  that 
the  middle,  high  and  low  men  are  evenly  distributed.  The  scale 
is  a  measuring  rod  for  human  capacity  and  the  points  by  which 
it  measures  must  be  at  equal  distances. 

4.  It  is  essential  that  any  officer  whose  name  appears  upon 
the  scale  be  a  man  who  exhibits  clearly  and  distinctly  the  qual- 
ity and  the  degree  of  quality  for  which  you  are  using  him.  The 
points  on  a  measuring  rod  must  be  clearly  marked  as  well  as 
evenly  spaced. 

If  you  find  difficulty  in  comparing  the  officers  being  rated  with 
any  particular  officers  on  your  scale  substitute  the  name  of  some 
other  who  will  make  the  comparison  easier.  In  this  way  with  a 
little  experience  the  scale  can  be  refined  and  perfected  until  it 
can  be  used  easily,  rapidly  and  confidently. 

5.  Officers  who  are  called  upon  to  rate  subordinates  of  more 
than  one  grade  will  make  separate  scales  for  each  grade,  using 
always  the  names  of  officers  one  grade  higher  than  that  of  the 
subordinates  to  be  rated. 

IV.    Instructions  for  Rating 

6.  In  rating,  compare  the  officer  to  be  rated  specifically  and 
directly  with  the  officers  whose  names  appear  on  the  scale.  Try 
to  have  as  clear  and  vivid  an  idea  of  both  as  possible.  Assign 
to  the  officer  being  rated  the  number  opposite  the  name  of  the 
officer  on  the  scale  whom  he  most  nearlj'  equals  in  the  qual- 
ification. If  he  is  a  little  higher  or  a  little  lower  than  the  nearest 
officer  on  the  scale,  adjust  his  number  accordingly.  For  exam- 
ple, if  an  officer,  in  physical  qualities,  seems  to  fall  just  below 
the  middle  point  but  above  low  give  him  7  or  8  points.  An 
officer  may  receive  any  number  between  zero  and  the  highest 
in  any  group  of  qualities. 

7.  Each  one  must  be  rated  by  actual  comparison  with  the 
officers  whose  names  appear  on  the  scale,  never  in  terms  of 
numbers  directly.     The  latter  way  practically  short-circuits  the 


2i6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

scale  and  inevitably  yields  inaccurate  and  unjust  ratings.  Always 
disregard  the  numerical  equivalent  until  you  have  first  made 
man-to-man   comparisons. 

8.  In  rating  for  III  (leadership)  and  V  (general  value) 
consider  which  one  of  the  officers  on  your  scale  your  subor- 
dinate will  most  nearly  equal  after  equivalent  experience. 

g.  The  sum  of  the  ratings  given  under  each  of  the  five  gen- 
eral qualities  is  the  officer's  final  rating. 

xo.  The  scale  is  in  no  sense  a  percentage  system.  The  aver- 
age rating,  if  directions  are  followed  carefully,  will  be  about  60 
points.  Stated  in  another  way,  60  points  mean,  in  the  case  of  a 
captain,  for  example,  that  a  major  has  compared  him  with  the 
majors  he  knows  and  certifies  that,  after  equivalent  experience, 
he  will  be  equal  to  an  average  major.  But  this  does  not  mean 
that  all  officers  are  60-point  men.  Officers  of  the  same  grade 
vary  greatly  in  capacity  and  careful  ratings  show  these  differ- 
ences. A  group  of  ten  correctly  rated  officers  commonly  shows 
differences  of  twenty-five  points  or  more. 

11.  Each  officer  is  rated  by  comparison  with  officers  of  the 
grade  just  above  and  the  ratings  are  relative  to  that  grade  only. 
There  is  no  reason  why  a  captain  should  not  receive  as  high  a 
rating  as  a  colonel.  The  rating  of  each  represents  the  relation 
to  officers  of  the  next  higher  grade. 

12.  If  you  are  using  the  scale  for  the  first  time,  make  a 
few  experimental  ratings  before  actually  rating  your  subordinate. 

13.  When  rating  several  subordinates,  rate  all  of  them  on 
each  qualification  before  adding  the  totals  for  any  one. 

14.  You  may  be  called  upon  to  rate  an  officer  you  have 
known  only  a  short  time.  While  longer  acquaintance  is  desir- 
able the  Rating  Scale  will  enable  you  to  use  what  knowledge 
you  have  to  the  best  advantage. 

15.  Ratings  shall  be  revised  or  approved  by  the  immediate 
superior  of  the  officer  making  the  rating.  Each  revising  officer 
is  expected  to  take  an  active  interest  and  responsibility  for  the 
ratings  made  by  his  subordinates.  He  should  assure  himself 
that  his  subordinate  officers  understand  the  scale  and  use  it 
conscientiously  and  intelligently.  He  will  from  time  to  time  ex- 
amine the  rating  scale  which  they  are  using  and  question  them 
about  it. 

16.  Where   rating  instructions  are  not   followed,   re-ratings 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        217 

will  be  called  for.     Cards  with  ratings  or  revisions  improperly 
recorded  or  with  defective  signatures  will  be  returned. 

In  order  to  understand  these  instructions  quickly  and  easily 
make  up  a  trial  scale. 

WAR   DEPARTMENT 

The  Adjutant  General's  Office 

Instructions  for  Rating  Commissioned  Officers 

1.  The  Rating  Scale. 

The  rating  scale  herein  described  is  to  be  used  in  filling  out  the  blanks 
provided  for  rating  on  the  reverse  side  of  Officers'  Qualification  Card. 
Each  officer  will  fill  out  this  Qualification  Card  as  directed  on  the  card 
itself  and  deliver  it  to  his  immediate  superior.  This  officer  should  see  that 
it  is  correctly  made  out  and  then  enter  upon  it  his  own  rating  of  the 
subordinate.  This  Rating  Officer  will  forward  the  cards  he  has  rated  to 
his  imrnediate  superior  for  approval  or  revision  (any  changes  to  be  entered 
in  red  ink).  Each  superior  officer  is  expected  to  exercise  an  active  super- 
vision of  his  subordinates,  especially  in  securing  uniformity  of  standards 
and  methods.  Cards  are  to  be  sent  through  military  channels  to  Division 
Headquarters  or  to  the  corresponding  headquarters  having  charge  of  as- 
signing,   transferring    and    promoting    the    officers. 

2.  Preparing  and   Using  the  Rating  Scales. 

(a)  Each  Rating  Officer  will  make  his  own  scale,  according  to  the  di- 
rections given  below,  for  each  of  the  five  essential  qualities  for  an  officer, 
namely,  physical  qualities,  intelligence,  leadership,  personal  qualities,  and 
general   value   to  the   service. 

(b)  Write  on  a  slip  of  paper  the  names  of  ten  or  more  officers  of 
your  own  rank  (preferably  of  about  the  same  age  as  the  subordinates  to 
be  rated)  with  whom  you  have  served  or  with  whom  you  are  well  ac- 
quainted. Include  as  many  whose  qualifications  are  poor  or  indifferent  as 
you  do  of  those  who  are  highly  efficient.  This  list  serves  merely  as  a 
convenient  reservoir  of  names  although  the  names  written  on  the  scale 
may    include    several    others. 

(c)  On  the  second  page  instructions  for  preparing  the  rating  scale  for 
Physical  Qualities  are  given  in  detail,  each  of  the  other  four  rating  scales 
should  be  prepared  in  a  corresponding  manner.  For  your  convenience,  a 
blank  rating  scale  for  each  of  the  five  qualities  is  provided:  Above  each 
scale  are  printed  the  particular  qualities  to  be  considered  when  making  it. 

(d)  Make  experimental  ratings  of  several  of  your  subordinates  in  terms 
of  a  tentative  scale  before  actually  rating  them.  If  you  have  trouble  in 
comparing  your  subordinates  with  any  particular  officer  on  your  scale, 
substitute  the  name  of  some  other  officer.  Proceed  in  this  way  until  you 
have  a  scale  which  you  can  use  readily  and  confidently  as  the  basis  of 
your   estimates. 

(e)  If  a  subordinate  seems  to  fall  between  two  officers  whom  you  have 
listed  on  the  scale,  give  him  credit  for  a  number  of  points  between  that 
for  the  one  above  him  and  that  for  the  one  below  him.  For  example,  if 
a  candidate,  in  physical  qualities,  seems  to  fall  below  the  officer  listed  as 
"middle,"  but  above  the  officer  listed  as  "low,"  give  him  credit  for  7  or  8 
points. 

(f)  The  significant  feature  of  this  system  is  the  comparison  of  each 
candidate  with  known  officers,  thus  supplying  a  concrete  standard  for 
judgment.  Form  the  habit  of  comparing  each  candidate  with  the  officers 
listed  on  your  rating  scale  under  each  of  the  five  qualities.  Avoid  the 
tendency  to  assign  numerical  ratings — e.  g.,  12,  9,  6 — without  first  making 
the   concrete   comparisons. 

(g)  Because  the  rating  scale  calls  attention  separately  and  consecutively 
to  each  of  these  several  essential  qualifications  for  an  officer,  it  lessens  the 
danger  that  judgments  may  be  based  on  minor  defects,  with  a  correspond- 
ing disregard  of  important  virtues.  Make  the  judgment  on  each  charac- 
teristic as  independent  as  possible  of  the  judgment  on  every  other  charac- 
teristic. Avoid  the  error  of  rating  low  in  all  characteristics  the  subordinate 
whom  for  any  reason  you  disapprove;  and  of  rating  high  in  all  character- 
istics the  subordinate  whom  you  admire. 


2i8  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

(h)To  obtain  the  total  rating  for  a  subordinate,  add  up  his  ratings  in 
the  five  separate  qualities  above.  A  subordinate  who  equals  the  "highest" 
officer  on  the  rating  scale  in  all  of  the  five  characteristics  receives  a  total 
of  100  points;  one  who  equals  the  "lowest"  receives  20  points;  one  who 
equals  the  "middle"  receives  60  points.  The  average  total  rating,  if 
directions  are  followed  carefully,  will  be  about  60  points.  Stated  in  an- 
other way,  60  points  means,  in  the  case  of  a  lieutenant  for  example,  that 
a  captain  has  compared  him  with  the  captains  he  knows  and  certifies  that, 
after  equivalent  experience,  he  will  be  equal  to  an  average  captain. 

I.  Physical  Qualities.  Disregard  every  characteristic  of  each  of  the 
ten  officers  except  the  way  in  which  he  impresses  his  men  by  his  physique, 
bearing,  neatness,  voice,  energy  and  endurance.  First,  select  that  one  of 
the  ten  who  ranks  highest  in  physical  qualities  and  enter  his  name  on  the 
first  blank  line  below.  Second,  select  that  one  who  ranks  lowest  in  physi- 
cal qualities  and  enter  his  name  on  the  fifth  line  below.  If  these  officers 
are  not  equal  to  "highest"  and  "lowest"  in  physical  qualities  among  all 
the  officers  you  know,  add  to  your  original  list  the  names  of  the  two 
officers  who  are  "highest"  and  "lowest"  in  this  characteristic.  Third,  half 
way  between  "highest"  and  "lowest"  select  another  officer  and  enter  his 
name  on  the  third  line.  Fourth,  select  the  officer  who  ranks  half  way  be- 
tween "middle"  and  "highest"  and  enter  his  name  on  the  second  line. 
And  fifth,  select  the  one  who  ranks  half  way  between  "middle"  and  "low- 
est" and  enter  his  name  on  the  fourth  line. 

Highest    IS 

High     12 

Middle 9 

Low     6 

Lowest     3 

II.  Intelligence.  Consider  his  accuracy,  ease  in  learning,  and  ability 
to  grasp  new  points  of  view  and  to  overcome  difficulties,  disregarding  all 
other  qualities. 

Highest    15 

High    12 

Middle     9 

Low     6 

Lowest     3 

III.  Leadership.  Consider  his  force,  self-reliance,  initiative,  decisive- 
ness, tact;  and  ability  to  command  obedience,  loyalty  and  cooperation  of 
men. 

Highest    IS 

High     12 

Middle     9 

Low     6 

Lowest     3 

IV.  Personal  Qualities.  Consider  his  industry,  dependability,  loyalty, 
personal  habits,  and  readiness  to  shoulder  responsibility  for  his  own  acts. 

Highest    15 

High     12 

Middle     9 

Low     6 

Lowest     3 

V.  General  Value  to  the  Service.  Consider  his  value  as  an  adminis- 
trator, as  an  instructor,  as  a  drill  master,  as  a  leader  in  action;  and 
whether  he  can  arrive  quickly  at  a  sensible  decision  in  a  crisis. 

Highest    40 

High     32 

Middle     24 

Low     '° 


Lowest 


8 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        219 

3.     Instructions  for  Applying  the   Rating  Scales. 

Having  prepared  the  five  rating  scales,  the  officer  is  then  ready  to  rate 
his  subordinates. 

The  method  to  be  followed  in  rating  each  subordinate  for  Physical 
Qualities  is  herewith  given  in  detail. 

Rating  for  Physical  Qualities.  Consider  how  the  subordinate  impresses 
his  men  by  his  physique,  bearing,  neatness,  voice,  energy  and  endurance. 
Compare  him  with  each  of  the  five  officers  under  number  i  on  the  rating 
scale,  and  give  him  the  number  of  points  following  the  name  of  the 
officer  whom  he  most  nearly  equals  in  physical  qualities.  Enter  that 
number  (maximum  15,  minimum  3)  on  the  Officers'  Qualification  Card, 
under  Rating  in  the  column  headed  Physical   (Form  CCP    iioi). 

Continue  to  rate  each  subordinate  in  a  corresponding  manner  for  each 
of  the  other  four  essential  qualities,  except  that  under  III  and  V  consider 
which  officer  he  will  most  nearly  equal  after  equivalent  experience.  Be 
sure,  in  each  case,  to  consider  only  those  qualities  which  were  used  in 
preparing  the  rating  scale. 


RATING  SCALE 
INSTRUCTIONS 


WHAT    IS    THE    RATING    SCALE? 

1.  The  Bating  Scale  Is  a  practical  method  of  gauging  a  foreman's  capacity  and  fitness  for  promotion 
quickly,    accurately   and   wltli    uniformity   and   justice. 

2.  The  rating  Itself  is  a  numerical  expression  of  the  degree  In  which  a  foreman  possesses  tlie  indus- 
trial qualifications  deemed  most  essential;  such  as  Trade  Ability,  Planning  and  Supervision,  Leadership, 
Teaching,   and  General  Value  to  tlie  Company. 

3.  The  degree  to  which  a  foreman  meets  these  qualifications  is  determined  by  a  man-to-man  com- 
parla^ju    with   otlier   foremen. 

4.  Becaiise  the  Bating  Scale  calls  attention  separately  to  each  of  the  several  essential  qualifications 
for  a  foreman,  it  lessens  the  danger  tliat  judgments  may  he  based  on  minor  defects,  with  disregard  of 
important  virtues. 

5.  It   takes   about   twenty   minutes   to   make   a   working   scale   and   sixty   seconds    to    make   a   rating. 

6.  All  ratings  are  confidentiai.  Department  heads  wiil  discuss  a  foreman's  rating  with  lilm  on  his 
request. 


HOW   TO    MAKE  THE  SCALE 

1.  Write  on  a  slip  of  paper  the  names  of  about  a   dozen  foremen  you   know   well. 

2.  If  you  do  not  have  enough  foremen  in  your  own  department  to  make  a  full  list,  use  the  names 
of   as^stant   foremeo,    department    beads,    or    foremen    in    otlier   departments. 

3.  Include   all   grades   of   ability   from   the   highest   to    tlie   lowest. 

4.  Tliifl  list  helps  you  to  rememt>er  tlie  names  to   be  used   hi  making   the  scale. 

5.  Disregard  every  onaracteristic  of  each  of  the  foremen  except  TRADE  ABILITY.  Select  from  your 
List  tlie  foreman  who  stands  highest  in  TKADE  ABILITY  (disregarding  all  other  qualities).  Write  his 
name  or  initials  on  the  line  marked  Iligliest.  On  the  line  marked  Lowest  put  tlie  name  of  the  foreman 
who  is  poorest  in  this  respect.  Put  the  middle  or  average  foreman  on  the  tlilrd  line  and  the  foremen 
who  rank  half  way  between  the  middle  and  the  extremes  on  the  otlier  two  lines.  If  you  have  two  men 
In  mind,   equally  good,  put  down  either  one. 

6.  Proceed  similarly  in  constructing  scales  for  the  other  four  qualities. 

7.  Do  not  use  the  same  set  of  foremen  for  all  qualities.     Try  to  use  at  least  ten  foremen. 

8.  The  names  for  the  highest  and  lowest  on  each  section  of  tlie  scale  must  represent  extreme  cases, 
the  best  and  poorest  you  have  ever  known.  TTie  name  for  the  Jliddle  should  be  that  of  an  average  foreman, 
half  way   between   the   extremes.      High   and   Low   should   be  half  way    between    the   Middle  and    tlie   extremes. 

9.  Each  foreman  whose  name  appears  on  the  scale  should  be  one  who  shows  clearly  and  distinctly 
the  qualification   and   the   degree   of   the   qualification   for   which   he  has   been   chosen. 

10.  If  you  find  difficulty  in  comparing  the  foremen  being  rated  witli  any  particular  foreman  on 
your  scale,  substitute  the  name  of  some  who  will  make  tlie  comparison  easier.  In  this  way  with  a 
little  experience  the  scale  can   be  used   easily,   rapidly   and  confidently. 

11.  In  order  to  uiiderstand  these  instructions  quickly  and  easily  make  up  a  trial  scale.  Tills 
trial  scale  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  finished  scale  that  a  first  crude  sketch  bears  to  a  finished 
drawing.      After    a    few    substitutions   of    names,    the    trial    scale    becomes   a    satisfactory    scale. 

12.  If  you  are  using  the  scale  for  the  first  time,  make  a  few  experimental  ratings  before  actually 
rating  one  of  your  foremen. 


HOW  TO   USE  THE  SCALE 

1.  Bate  your  foreman  for  TBADE  ABILITY  first.  Consider  kind  and  amount  of  trade  (or  depart- 
ment) experience;  manual  skill  in  his  work  and  knowledge  of  machines,  tools,  materials,  and  trade 
methods.  Compare  the  foremen  you  are  rating  wltli  each  of  the  five  foremen  in  Se<'tlon  1  of  the  Bating 
Scale   and  give  him   the   number  of  points  following   the  name   of   the   foreman    he   most   nearly   equals. 

2.  If  he  is  a  little  higher  or  a  little  lower  tlian  the  nearest  foreman  on  the  scale,  adjust  his  number 
accordingly.  For  example,  if  a  foreman,  in  TBADE  ABILITY,  seems  to  fall  below  the  Middle  pohit 
but    above   Ixjw   give   hlra    7   or   8. 

3.  Bate  the  foreman  In  a  correBponding   manner  for  each  of  the  other  four  essential  qualifications. 

4.  Make  a  man-to-man  comparison  of  the  foreman  you  are  rating  with  the  foremen  whose  names 
appear  on  your  scale. 

5.  When  rating  several  foremen,  rate  all  of  them  on  each  qualification  before  adding  the  total  for  any 
one   foreman. 

6.  The  total  rating  for  a  foreman  Is  the  sum  of  the  rating  you  give  him  in  the  five  separate  qualities. 
If  directions  are  followed  carefully  the  average  of  any  considerable  group  of  foremen  rated  is  about 
sixty  points. 


1  The  above  foim  is  being  tried  out  by  a  certain  manufacturing 


FOR  FOREMEN 


RATING  SCALE 


I.     TRADE  ABILITY 

Consider  Mnd  and  amount  of  trade  (or  department) 
exDerience;  Imowledge  of,  and  resourcefulness  in 
using  machines,   tools,   materials,   and  trade  methods. 


II.     ABILITY    TO    PLAN    AND    SUPERVISE 

Consider  ability  to  maintain  standard  Quality  work; 
to  place  help  where  they  can  do  the  best  work;  to 
plan  ahead  so  as  to  have  materials,  men  and  tools 
ready  to  get  out  orders  on  schedule  time  witli  min- 
imum production  costs,  and  to  keep  a  steady  flow 
of    work    through    the    department. 


Highest    IS 

High    12 

Middle    9 

Low    6 

Lowest    3 

Highest    25 

High    20 

Middle    15 

Low    10 

Lowest    5 

Highest    15 

High    12 

Middle    9 

Low    6 

Lowest    3 

Highest    IS 

High    12 

Middle    9 

Low    6 

Lowest    3 

Highest    30 

High    24 

Middle    18 

Low    12 

Lowest    6 


ABILITY    TO     HANDLE    MEN 

Consider  initiative,  decisiveness,  resourcefulness,  en- 
ergy, self-control;  and  ability  to  deal  fairly  with 
his  help;  to  earn  their  respect,  good- will  and  con- 
fidence; to  maintain  just  discipline  and  a  stable 
working   force. 


IV.     ABILITY    TO    TEACH 

Consider  his  ability  to  explain  his  work  clearly  and 
thoroughly  to  a  beginner,  to  gain  the  beginner's  con- 
fidence and  make  him  interested  In  the  work;  his 
success  in  developing  all-around  men,  bettering  men 
of  lower  grades,  and  increasing  generally  the  knowl- 
edge  and   skill  of   the  help  under   him. 


V.  GENERAL  VALUE  TO  THE  COMPANY 

Consider  his  years  of  service,  his  loyalty,  his  ability 
to  understand  and  carry  out  the  Company's  policies; 
orderliness  of  his  department;  his  readiness  and 
ability  to  co-operate  with  other  departments  and  tlie 
management  in  giving  new  ideas  and  methods  a  fair 
trial. 


concern    as   an   experiment   with   the  army  system  of  personnel  classification. 


222  SELECTED    ARTICLES 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  SELECTION  OF  SALESMEN^ 

hi  ail}'  business  organization  the  two  great  items  of  expense 
are  material  and  service.  The  purchasing  and  the  employment 
departments,  whether  fully  segregated  from  the  other  depart- 
ments or  not,   spend  the  money  for  the  entire   organization. 

The  purchasing  departments  have  so  systematized  their  prac- 
tices that,  in  the  main,  purchases  are  made  upon  the  basis  of 
perfectly  definite  and  scientific  specifications.  In  the  purchase 
of  fuel  the  coal  is  specified  as  to  the  number  of  heat  units 
per  pound  of  coal,  the  heat  unit  being  based  on  the  amount  of 
heat  necessary  to  raise  one  pound  of  water  one  degree  Fahren- 
heit. In  the  purchase  of  steel  there  may  be  specifications  as  to 
the  chemical  constituents  of  the  product,  the  tensile  strength, 
the  stress  a  beam  will  carry  before  l)reaking,  elasticity,  or  the 
degree  of  hardness  required. 

Systematize  the  Employment  Department 

h\  tlie  purchase  of  cloth  there  may  be  specifications  as  to 
the  quality  of  threads  used  in  the  construction,  the  number  of 
each  kind  of  thread  per  inch,  the  actual  weight,  and  also  the 
chemical  constituents  of  the  dyes  used.  In  the  purchase  of  any 
device  requiring  electricity  there  may  be  specifications  as  to  the 
amount  of  light,  the  number  of  revolutions  or  the  horse  power 
per  kilowatt,  etc.  In  many  instances  the  specifications  are  so 
definite  that  an  entire  change  of  the  personnel  of  the  purchas- 
ing department  would  make  no  serious  change  in  the  quality  of 
the  goods  secured. 

In  some  organizations  the  expense  account  for  goods  is  greater 
than  that  for  service  and  in  such  instances  attention  may  have  been 
wisely  focused  upon  placing  the  purchasing  department  on  a 
scientific  basis.  In  many  organizations  the  expense  for  service 
is  greater  than  the  expense  for  goods.  In  no  organization  is 
the  employment  department  on  a  scientific  basis  comparable  to 
our  good  purchasing  departments. 

The  one  basis  for  purchasing  goods  is  specification,  but  there 
is  no  one  method  of  selecting  employees.     The  head  of  one  em- 

*  By  Walter  Dill  Scott,  President,  The  Scott  Co.  Consulting  Engineer 
in  Industrial  Personnel.  Advertising  and  Selling  Magazine.  25:5-6,  94-6; 
III    55;    II.   69-70.      October-December,    1915. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        223 

ployment  department  in  selecting  employees  is  said  to  depend 
upon  intuition,  another  on  common  sense,  another  on  practical 
judgment,  another  on  native  wit,  another  on  Yankee  shrewdness, 
another  on  phrenology,  another  on  chance,  and  one  on  suspicion. 

Inadequacy  of  Former  Methods 

Most  men  using  such  methods  discover  their  inadequacy,  but 
occasionally  a  man  is  found  who  is  entirely  satisfied  with  re- 
sults. One  gentleman  affirmed  in  all  seriousness  that  his 
method  had  never  failed  to  select  the  right  man.  His  faith 
in  his  method  of  selection  was  as  unshaken  as  the  faith  of 
the  old-time  farmer  in  his  patent  medicine,  or  the  savage  in 
lucky  stones,  or  of  the  ancients  in  the  optimistic  prophecies  of 
the  soothsayer.  One  employment  expert  asserted  in  public  that 
in  placing  many  thousand  employees  according  to  her  method, 
she  had  never  misplaced  a  single  man.  As  soon  as  records  are 
kept  such  systems  are  found  to  be  entirely  unsatisfactory  and 
but  little  better  than  mere  chance.  There  is  occasionally  a  man 
who  does  seem  to  have  slightly  unusual  skill  in  sizing  up  men, 
but  such  a  man  is  likely  to  be  equally  good  for  many  things, 
and  hence  is  frequently  called  away  for  other  duties. 

Practice  within  the  employment  department  is  not  standard- 
ized, and  with  a  change  in  the  personnel  of  the  department  a 
very  great  change  results  in  the  quality  of  employees  selected. 
If  there  are  several  men  selecting  employees  for  the  same  or- 
ganization, the  standards  of  these  men  will  differ  amazingly. 

A  tobacco  house,  having  over  a  thousand  salesmen  scattered 
over  the  United  States,  subdivided  the  whole  country  into  dis- 
tricts over  which  managers  are  placed.  These  district  man- 
agers in  the  past  selected  their  salesmen  more  or  less  indepen- 
dently. There  was  no  way  to  tell  whether  the  different  man- 
agers would  have  agreed  as  to  which  of  all  the  applicants  to 
reject  and  which  ones  to  select.  The  following  experiment 
makes  clear  the  amount  of  agreement  and  disagreement  between 
the   selections  of  six  of  these  district  managers. 

Scientifically  Choosing  Among  Thirty-six  Applicants 

Thirty-six  applicants  for  a  selling  position  for  this  com- 
pany assembled  at  Evanston,  Illinois.  Each  of  the  six  man- 
agers occupied  a  room  in  Northwestern  University  Psychologi- 


224  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

cal  Laboratory  where  he  interviewed  each  of  the  thirty-six  appH- 
cants.  Each  manager  was  instructed  to  assume  that  he  alone 
stood  between  the  appHcant  and  the  pay  roll  of  the  company. 
This  was  a  responsibility  that  every  manager  was  familiar  with. 
Following  the  interview  each  manager  made  a  report  on  each 
of  the  thirty-six  applicants  and  indicated  which  was  the  most 
likely  candidate,  the  second  best,  the  third  best,  etc.  The  ap- 
plicants are  indicated  in  Table  I  (see  Table  I,  next  page),  by 
Roman  numerals,  and  the  managers  are  indicated  by  letters  at 
the  top  of  the  column.  Thus  Applicant  I  was  thought  to  be  the 
fifth  best  by  Manager  A ;  the  eleventh  best  by  Manager  B ;  the 
second  best  by  Manager  C ;  as  tied  for  first  place  by  Manager 
D;  as  third  by  Manager  E;  and  as  second  best  by  Manager  F. 

It  was  the  intention  of  the  company  to  select  about  one- 
half  of  the  applicants.  It  might  have  been  assumed  that  these 
six  district  managers  would  have  agreed  pretty  closely  as  to 
whether  a  particular  applicant  was  in  the  upper  half  of  the 
group  or  in  the  lower  half.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  case  of 
28  of  the  applicants  these  six  manager  disagreed  as  to  whether 
the  individual  should  be  placed  in  the  upper  or  the  lower  half 
of  the  group.  All  agreed  that  Applicants  I,  II,  IV,  VI  and  XVI 
should  be  in  the  upper  half,  and  that  applicants  XXXIV,  XXV 
and  XXXVI  should  be  in  the  lower  half.  An  inspection  of  the 
table  shows  much  agreement  among  the  six  managers,  but  the 
disagreements  are  striking.  Thus  applicant  XVII  was  thought 
to  be  the  third  best  of  the  group  of  thirty-six  by  Manager  C; 
but  was  placed  thirtieth  by  Manager  B.  Applicant  XVIII  was 
thought  to  be  the  best  in  the  group  by  Manager  E;  but  was 
ranked  as  tied  for  the  thirty-second  place  by  Manager  D.  Yet 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  these  six  gentlemen  agreed  even 
more  closely  than  is  the  case  with  employment  agents  in  general. 

The  ordinary  method  of  selecting  employees  is  by  means  of 
inspection,  interviews  and  recommendations.  These  are  not 
worthless  and  they  secure  results  much  better  than  would  be 
done  by  flipping  a  coin  or  by  drawing  the  names  by  chance  out  of 
a  hat.  Such  methods  are,  however,  unscientific,  unsatisfactory 
and  should  be  supplemented  by  four  methods  now  to  be  dis- 
cussed. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  225 


The  Standard  of  the  Medical  Examination 

Perhaps  the  most  difficult  thing  to  predict  about  a  man  is  the 
date  at  which  he  will  die.  Until  the  time  of  the  modern  U£e 
insurance  companies  no  scientific  attempt  was  made  to  fix  the 
most  probable  date  of  death.  These  companies  have  standard- 
ized their  practice  by  means  of  carefully  classified  data.  They 
know  the  most  probable  date  of  death  for  a  man  of  a  given  age, 
physical  condition,  ancestry,  habit,  and  occupation.  The  stand- 
ard set  by  the  medical  examinations  has  been  an  inestimable 
benefit  to  the  life  insurance  companies.  It  is  not  strange,  there- 
fore, that  the  same  standard  or  a  modification  of  it  has  been 
adopted  by  scores  of  industrial  organizations  during  the  last 
few  years.  This  examination,  having  to  do  primarily  with  the 
death,  sickness  or  disability  of  the  person,  may  be  regarded  as 
the  first  step  in  placing  the  selection  of  employees  on  a  scien- 
tific basis. 


The  Standard  of  the  Educational  Minimum 

The  minimum  educational  standard  is  not  new,  but  it  is  be- 
ing applied  in  new  ways.  In  certain  times  and  places  mechanics 
were  not  able  to  secure  emplojment  till  they  had  completed  the 
full  apprenticeship.  School  teachers  are  not  eligible  to  posi- 
tions till  they  have  received  a  certificate  based  on  an  exami- 
nation supposed  to  test  educational  attainment. 

The  civil  service  is  based  primarily  upon  this  simple  basis. 
For  certain  positions  only  those  are  selected  who  hold  a  diploma 
from  a  technical  school.  Colleges  accept  only  those  who  have 
graduated  from  a  secondary  school.  Several  commercial  organ- 
izations will  consider  for  certain  positions  only  those  appli- 
cants who  have  had  the  equivalent  of  a  secondary  or  college 
education.  Some  organizations  will  consider  for  typists  only 
those  who  have  acquired  the  ability  to  write  thirtj^-five  words  a 
minute.  They  consider  as  stenographers  only  those  who  can 
take  in  shorthand  one  hundred  words  a  minute.  These  stan- 
dards of  a  minimum  education  are  definite,  determinable,  sub- 
ject to  indefinite  extension,  and  in  every  way  to  be  recommended. 


226 


SELECTED   ARTICLES 


Table  i — Combined  report  of  6  district  managers  as  to  ability  of 

36  applicants. 


Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 
Appli 
Appl 
Appl 
Appl 


can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 
can 


Mngr. 
A 

I S 

II 8.5 

III 6.5 

IV 2 

V 15 

VI I 

VII 17.S 

VIII 14 

IX 28 

X 19 

XI lo.s 

XII 12 

XIII 3 

XIV 4 

XV 31 

XVI 6.S 

XVII 28 

XVIII 23.5 

XIX 16 

XX 8.S 

XXI 21.5 

XXII 13 

XXIII 35 

XXIV 26.S 

XXV 34 

XXVI 30 

XXVII 2I.S 


XXVIII 10.5 

XXIX 25 

XXX 23 

XXXI 23.S 

XXXII 17.5 

XXXIII 33 

XXXIV 32 

XXXV 26.S 

XXXVI 36 


Mngr. 

B 

II 
1 1 
18.S 

2 

3 
1 1 

18.S 
18.S 
II 
II 
23 
30 
23 
II 

5 

I 
30 

4 

6 
II 
II 
30 
II 
16 
23 
23 
34 
30 
18.S 
23 
30 
30 
34-5 
26 
30 
36 


Mngr. 

C 

2 
13 
25 

I 

4 

5 

19 
27 
22 
16 
18 
22 

\2 

6 
8 
7 
3 

9-5 
20 

IS 
17 
30 

14 
9-5 
26 
II 
34 
23 
21 
29 
33 
31 
36 
23 
24 
35 


Mngr. 
D 
i-S 
3 

21 

1-5 
28 

9 
12 

6 
1 1 
18 
17 
35 

S 
24 

4 

7 
29 

32-5 
26.5 

14-5 
8 
30 
25 
23 
14-5 
10 
16 

19 
20 

34 
13 

22 

32.5 
26.5 

31 
36 


Mngr. 
E 
3 

7-5 
IS 

I 

3 
15 
23 
15 

3 
15 
30 
30 
IS 
21 

7-5 

7-5 
23 
23 
34.5 
30 
23 
30 
15 
23 

7.5 
15 
30 

75 
15 

1-i 
30 
23 
15 
34.5 

36 
30 


Mngr. 


F 

2 

5-S 
22 

s-s 
14.S 

3 
26 
23 

9 
10. S 

4 

14.5 
19 
18 

25 

7 

8 

I 
10. s 
21 
17 
24 
16 
27 

13 

12 

32 

28.S 

20 

28.S 

3C 

31 

33 

36 

34 

35 


The  Standard  of  Native  Ability 


Automatically  all  men  are  much  alike,  but  there  are  differ- 
ences of  height,  weight  and  general  appearance.  In  native 
ability  men  are  very  different.  The  difference  between  the  giant 
and  the  dwarf  is  much  less  than  the  difference  between  the  genius 
and  the  imbecile.  Children  of  ten  years  of  age  may  differ 
much,  as  to  height  and  weight,  but  they  differ  more  in 
native  ability.  Occasionally  a  boy  of  ten  may  have  the  phy- 
sique of  a  boy  of  twelve  or  of  eight.  But  many  boys  of  ten 
have  the  intelligence  of  boys  of  twelve  or  boys  of  eight. 

The  two  French  scientists,  Binet  and  Simon,  rendered  a  great 
service  to  mankind  when  they  invented  the  method  of  determin- 
ing the  "mental  age"  of  children  and  of  unintelligent  adults. 
They  devised  a  series  of  tasks  for  children  of  each  age  such 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        227 

that  children  of  a  younger  age  could  not  successfuly  perform 
them.  Thus  the  tasks  devised  for  "mental  age,  ten"  could  be 
successfully  performed  by  a  majority  of  children  ten  years  of 
age,  but  could  not  be  performed  by  the  average  child  nine  years 
old.  The  tests  were  devised  primarily  for  children  of  the  lower 
classes  of  Paris  and  hence  can  not  be  used  directly  for  Ameri- 
can children  and  certainly  not  for  testing  American  adults.  To 
meet  this  need  the  following  test  is  one  of  a  series  of  tests  that 
have  been  devised  to  determine  the  native  ability  of  American 
adult  applicants  for  commercial  and  industrial  positions. 

TEST  I 
Read  the  General  Directions  Before  You  Do  Anything  Else. 
General   Directions: 

Do  what  the  printed  instructions  tell  you  to  do. 

Do  not   ask  the  examiner  any  questions  about   the  examination. 

Do  not  ask  any  other  person  who  is  taking  the  examination  any  ques- 
tions or  watch  any  one  to  see  what  he  or  she  does. 

Work  as  rapidly  as  you  can  without  making  any  mistakes. 

If  you  do  make  a  mistake,  correct  it  neatly. 

Do   I   first,  then  2.  then-  3,  and  so  on. 

I.     Write  your  name  and  permanent  address  here. 


Instructions  for  2,  3  and  4: 

After  each  word  printed  below  you  are  to  write  some  word,  according 
to   the  further   directions.      Write  plainly,   but  as   quickly   as   you   can.      If 

you  cannot   think  of  the  right  word  in  about  3   seconds,   go   ahead   to   the 
next. 

3.      Write  the  opposites  of  the  words  in  this  column,  as  shown  in  the 
first  three. 

good — bad  up — 

day — night  smooth — 

up — down  early — 

long —  dead — 

soft —  hot — 

white —  asleep — 
far— 

3.  Write  words  that  fit  the  words  in  this  column,  in  the  way  shown 
in   the   first   three. 

drink — water  scold — 

ask — questions  win — 

subtract — numbers  answer — 

sing —  weave — 

build —  wink — 

wear —  mend — 
shoot — 

4.  Write   words   that   tell   what   sort   of   a  thing   each   thing  named   is, 
as  shown   in   the  first  three. 

lily — flower  quinine — 

blue — color  beef — 

diamond — jewel  canoe — 

oak —           ,  banana — 

measles —  Atlantic — 

July—  Alps- 
shark — 


29 

46 

i8 

.?5 

60 

77 

64 

49 

62 

S7 

68 

228  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

5.  Add   17  to  each  of  these  numbers.     Write  the  answers  as  shown  in 
the  first  three. 

74  38 

S3  28 

67  6s 

2S  41 

10  SO 

61  42 

71  58 
33 

6.  Get  the  answers  to  these  problems  as  quickly  as  you  can. 

1.  What  number  minus   16^  equals  20. 

2.  A  man  spent  2/3  of  his'  money  and  had  $8  left.  How  much  had  he 
at  first? 

3.  At    IS   cents  a  yard,  how  much  will   7   feet  of  cloth  cost? 

4.  A  man  bought  land  for  $100.  He  sold  it  for  $120,  gaining  $5 
an  acre.      How  many  acres  were  there? 

5.  If  J4  of  a  gallon  of  oil  costs  9  cents,  what  will  7  gallons  cost? 

7.  Write  opposites  for  this  column,  as  shown  in  the  first  three.  If  you 
cannot  think  of  the  right  word  in  about   10  seconds,  go  ahead  to  the  next. 

bravery — cowardice  forcible — 

friend — enemy  straight — 

true — faise  to  hold — 

serious —  after 

grand —  to  float — 

to  win —  rough — 

to   respect —  to  bless — 

frequently —  to  take — 

to   lack —  exciting — 

apart —  clumsy — 

stormy —  unless — 
motion — 

8.  Write  in  each  line  a  fourth  word  that  fits  the  third  word  in  that 
line  in  the  way  that  the  second  word  fits  the  first,  as  shown  in  the  first 
three  lines.  If  you  cannot  think  of  the  right  word  in  about  10  seconds, 
go  ahead. 

color — red;   name  John  dog — puppy;     cat — 

page — book;    handle — knife  little — less;      much — 

fire — burns;     soldiers — fight  wash — face;     sweeps 

eye — see;     ear —  house — room;     book — 

Monday — Tuesday;     April—  sky — blue;    grass — 

do — did;    see —  swim — water;     fly — 

bird — sings;    dog —  once — one;     twice — 

hour — minute;     minute —  cat — fur;    bird — 

straw — hat;     leather —  pan — tin;    table — 

cloud — rain;     sun —  buy — sell;     come — 

hammer — tool;     dictionary —  oyster — shell;     banana — 
uncle — aunt;     brother — 

9.  Do  what  it  says  to  do  as  quickly  as  you  can,  but  be  careful  to 
notice  just  what  it   does  say. 

With  your  pencil  make  a  dot  over  any  one  of  these  letters  F  G  H  I  J, 
and   a   comma   after    the   longest    of   these    three    words:     boy   mother   girl. 

Then,  if  Christmas  comes  in  March,  make  a  cross  right  here ,  but 

if  not,  pass  along  to  the  next  question  and  tell  where  the  sun  rises 

If  you  believe  that  Edison  discovered  America,  cross  out  what  you  just 
wrote,  but  if  it  was  some  one  else,  put  in  a  number  to  complete  this  sen- 
tence:    "A   horse   has feet."     Write  yes,   no   matter   whether   China 

is  in  Africa  or  not.. ;  and  then  give  a  wrong  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion:   "How  many  days  are  there  in  the  week?" Write  any  letter 

except  g  just  after  this  comma, and  then  write  no  if  2  times  s  are  10. 

Now,    if   Tuesday   came   after   Monday,    make   two   crosses    here. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        229 

;    but  if  not,  make  a  circle  here or  else  a  square  here 

Be  sure  to  make  three  crosses  between  these  two  names   of  boys:   George 

Henry.     Notice  these  two  numbers:    3,  5.     If  iron  is  heavier  than 

water,  write  the  larger  number  here But  if  iron  is  lighter  write 

the  smaller  number  here .••••.    Show  by  a  cross   when   the  nights  are 

longer:    in  summer? in  winter? Give  the  correct  answer 

to  this  question:    "Does  water  run  uphill?"   and  repeat  your  answer 

here Do  nothing  here   (5  +  7  =    ),  unless  you  skipped 

the  preceding  question;     but  write  the  first  letter   of   your  first  name  and 

the  last  letter  of  your  last  name  at  the  ends  of  this  line: 

10.  Place  in  the  bracket  preceding  each  English  proverb  the  number 
of  the  African  proverb  to  which  the  English  proverb  corresponds  in  mean- 
ing. 

English  Proverbs 

(  )  Married  in  haste,  we  repent  at  leisure. 

(  )  Answer  a  fool  according  to  his  folly. 

(  )  One  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer. 

(  )  First  catch  your  hare. 

(  )  Adding  insult  to  injury. 

(  )  Curses  come  home  to  roost. 

(  )  Distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 

(  )  We  can  all  endure  the  misfortunes  of  others. 

African  Proverbs 

1.  One  tree  does  not  make  a  forest. 

2.  "I  nearly  killed  the  bird."     No  one  can  eat  "nearly"  in  a  stew. 

3.  Full-belly  child  says  to  hungry-belly  child,   "Keep  good  cheer." 

4.  Distant  firewood  is  good  firewood. 

5.  Ashes  fly  in  the  face  of  him  who  throws  them. 

6.  If  the  boy  says  he  wants  to  tie  the  water  with  a  string,  ask  him 
whether  he  means  the  water  in  the  pot  or  the  water  in  the  lagoon. 

7.  The  ground-pig  said:  "I  do  not  feel  so  angry  with  the  man  who 
killed  me  as  with  the  man  who  dashed  me  on  the  ground  afterward." 

8.  Quick  loving  a  woman  means  quick  not  loving  a  woman. 

Just  as  soon  as  you  finish,  give  your  paper  to  the  examiner  so  as  to 
get  credit  for  having  completed  the  work  before  time  was  called. 

The  most  brilliant  adult  applicants  complete  the  ten  parts 
of  this  Test  I  in  about  fourteen  minutes.  An  intelligence  that 
enables  the  possessor  to  complete  the  ten  parts  in  thirty-three 
minutes  with  a  total  of  eighteen  errors  is  assumed  to  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  applicants  for  selling  positions  for  one  organiza- 
tion. The  applicants  for  another  organization  must  attain  a 
much  higher  standard,  which  is  a  limit  of  twenty  minutes  and 
not  more  than  eight  errors.  In  these  two  organizations  the  ap- 
plicants who  fail  to  attain  the  standard  accomplishment  in  Test 
I,  are  rejected  unless  in  some  of  the  other  intelligence  tests  the 
minimum  standards  of  accomplishments  are  surpassed.  No 
person  of  a  low  degree  of  intelligence  can  complete  Test  I  ac- 
curately in  thirty  minutes.  Occasionally  a  person  of  good 
native  ability  and  with  a  common  school  education  or  better  fails 
to  complete  some  one  of  the  intelligence  tests  accurately  and 
quickly.  By  the  use  of  several  different  kinds  of  tests  for  na- 
tive ability  there  is  but  little  danger  of  rejecting  a  worthy  ap- 
plicant. 


230  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


Standard   of  Relative   Rank   and   Relative   Position 

There  are  instances  in  which  an  individual's  characteristics 
may  be  expressed  in  either  an  ahsohite  or  a  relative  standard. 
In  such  instances  the  relative  standard  is  frequently  the  more 
significant.  To  say  that  a  man  can  grip  200  pounds  with  his 
right  hand  is  not  so  significant  as  to  say  that  he  can  grip  with 
his  right  hand  harder  than  any  other  man  in  the  state.  To  state 
that  Mr.  Smith  can  perceive  fourteen  letters  at  a  glance  is  not 
so  significant  as  to  say  that  Mr.  Smith  can  read  more  letters 
at  a  glance  than  any  other  of  the  one  hundred  persons  who 
tried  the  experiment.  When  we  attempt  to  measure  the  most 
important  human  characteristics  we  find  that  there  are  no  ab- 
solute standards  and  that  we  are  compelled  to  resort  entirely 
to  relative  standards  or  to  relative  positions  in  a  group.  There 
are  no  absolute  standards  for  measuring  loyalty,  industry, 
wastefulness,  punctuality,  inventiveness,  etc.,  but  of  ten  men 
working  together  we  may  judge  that  Jones  is  the  most  loyal  of 
the  group ;  that  Brown  is  second  only  to  Newton  in  industry ; 
that  Williams  is  fourth  in  time  of  service ;  that  Davis  is  about 
fifth  in  the  amount  of  supervision  required;  that  Johnson  is 
seventh  in  wastefulness;  that  Bush  is  ninth  in  punctuality;  and 
that  Thomas  is  tenth  in  inventiveness,  etc. 

The  attempt  to  refer  a  single  individual  to  a  relative  rank  or 
a  relative  position  within  his  group  is  not  an  easy  task  and  is 
liable  to  be  inaccurate,  but  in  actual  practice  it  works  out  sur- 
prisingly well. 

Recently  an  experiment  was  made  in  a  silk  manufacturing 
and  distributing  company  to  determine  the  accuracy  of  the  man- 
agers, superintendents — bosses — in  estimating  the  value  of  em- 
ployees for  the  company.  Twenty-six  employees  who  were  well 
known  by  at  least  three  of  the  bosses  were  selected  and  the 
relative  value  of  each  for  the  firm  expressed  in  terms  of  Rela- 
tive Bank.  The  result  of  the  experiment  is  presented  in  Table 
III. 

In  this  table  the  reader  will  be  impressed  by  the  agreement 
of  the  bosses  in  the  case  of  certain  employees  and  the  lack  of 
agreement  in  the  case  of  others.  The  bosses  agree  that  Em- 
ployee A  is  more  valuable  for  the  firm  than  any  other  employee 
in  the  group.     Concerning  Employee  F  there  is  much  diversity 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        231 

of  opinion.  Thus  Boss  C  judges  him  to  be  the  second  best  of 
the  group ;  Boss  B,  places  him  fourth ;  Boss  D,  places  him  sixth ; 
Boss  E,  places  him  seventh;  but  according  to  the  judgment  of 
Boss  A,  he  ties  for  the  seventeenth  place. 

According  to  the  combined  judgment  of  the  four  bosses  who 
ranked  Employee  J,  he  is  about  tenth  in  the  group  of  twenty- 
six.  It  would  be  much  more  valuable  to  know  where  he  would 
stand  in  a  group  of  a  hundred  or  even  of  a  thousand  individuals 
performing  the  same  general  line  of  work  and  with  whom  he 
would  be  fairly  compared.  This  ideal  system  is  called  the  Per- 
centile Rank  system  and  has  been  fairly  well  developed  in  cer- 
tain particulars.  Thus  in  Chicago  of  all  normal  boys  of  twelve 
years  of  age  the  weakest  ten  per  cent  of  them  can  grip  with  the 
right  hand  not  more  than  28  pounds ;  the  strongest  10  per  cent 
can  grip  64  pounds  or  more ;  the  weakest  25  per  cent  can  not 
grip  more  than  44  pounds ;  the  weakest  75  per  cent  not  more 
than  57  pounds.  When  such  standards  are  established,  an  indi- 
vidual can  be  measured  and  classified  immediately.  Thus  if  a 
twelve  A'ear  old  boy  in  Chicago  is  tested  and  it  is  found  that  he 
can  grip  64  pounds  or  more,  he  is  at  once  classed  as  belonging 
to  the  strongest  10  per  cent ;  if  he  grips  less  than  28  pounds,  he 
is  known  to  be  of  the  weakest  10  per  cent.  If  he  grips  44 
pounds  or  less  he  is  known  to  be  among  the  weakest  25  per  cent 
of  boys.  If  he  grips  57  pounds  or  less,  he  is  known  to  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  upper  25  per  cent  in  strength  of  hand. 

Some  high  schools  are  now  classifying  all  their  students  as 
belonging  to  the  upper  25  per  cent ;  to  the  lowest  25  per  cent, 
etc.  The  attempt  is  proving  very  satisfactory  and  is  a  system 
that  could  with  profit  be  adopted  for  general  use  for  most — 
perhaps  for  all — commercial  and  industrial  organizations  in 
classifying  old  employees  as  well  as  new  applicants. 


232 


SELECTED   ARTICLES 


TABLE  III 


Firm 
Rank 

Employee     A   i 

B   2 

C .  3 

D   4 

E 5 

"             F  6 

G   7 

H   8 

I   9 

J     10 

K  ii.s 

L   II.5 

M   13 

N   14 

O   IS 

P   i6 

Q   17 

R   i8 

S    19 

T     20 

U     21 

V    22 

W    23 

X     24 

Y  25 

Z   26 

Correlation   of  Firm  Rank 

and    Test    Rank 

Correlation   with   Test  Rank  . . 
Correlation   with   Boss   D.. 
Correlation   with   Boss  A.. 


Test 
Rank 

2-5 

6 

4 

2-5 

S 
7 
I 

IS 

9 

19 

14 

10 

13 
8 

12 

II 

i8 
i6 

22 
21 
24 
17 

as 

20 
23 
26 

.884 

.911 
.804 


Boss 
A 

I 

3 
8 
S 
6 

2 
12 
10 

9 

7 

4 
13 
II 

19 

14 

IS 

20 

16 

22 

24 

23 

17.S 

21 

26 

2S 


.804 

•777 


Boss' 
Boss 
B 

I 

3 

2 

5 

7 

4 

6 

8 

16 

10 

14 

19 

12 

13 

9 

1 1 

18 

IS 
22 

23 
17 
20 

25 

21 

24 
26 


Judgment 
Boss     Boss 


C 

I 

4 
3 
6 

S 

2 
10 

9 
8 

7 
14 
IS 
12 

17 

1 1 

le 
18 
20 
24 
19 

25 

23 

22 
21 
26 


.878         .814 
.863        .877 

.704       -754 


D 

I 
2 
3 
5 

12 
6 
8 

9 
18 

17 

14 

2\ 

IS 
I  I 


20 
26 
23 

24 

2S 


.911 


Boss 
E 


3 
I 

S 

7 

II 


21 
25 

19 
IS 
13 

17 

23 


•571 
.640 


Testing  the  Tests 


We  have  so  far  treated  of  the  medical  examination,  the 
minimum  trainincj  or  educational  standard,  the  standard  of 
native  ability,  and  the  standard  of  relative  rank  in  the  group. 
These  standards  can  be  applied  to  all  applicants  with  relative 
ease  and  with  resultant  profit  to  all  concerned. 

No  standard  and  no  method  of  testing  to  secure  the  standard 
should  be  assumed  to  be  valuable  until  it  has  been  rigidly  tested 
out  in  practice. 

The  medical  examination  has  been  thoroughly  tried  out  by 
numerous  organizations  and  has  been  proved  a  success.  Some 
companies  have  found  certain  types  of  medical  examinations 
better  than  others.  One  organization  finds  that  the  examina- 
tions must  be  given  by  the  company  physician ;  another  finds 
that  any  reputable  physician  is  satisfactory.  The  examination 
for  those  occupying  sedentary  positions  differs  from  the  ex- 
amination of  those  engaged  in  physical  labor.     Some  organiza- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        233 

tions  secure  best  results  with  a  physical  examination  like  that 
given  at  West  Point,  others  find  the  ordinary  life  insurance 
company  examination  best.  It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
a  medical  examination  of  some  sort  should  be  given  to  all  per- 
sons before  they  are  placed  on  the  pay  roll  of  the  company. 
The  points  to  be  investigated  by  each  organization  are  the  nature 
of  the  tests,  the  manner  of  applying  them,  and  the  system  of 
checking,  results. 


Checking  up  the  Employment  Department 

Excepting  the  medical  examination,  there  seems  to  be  no 
scientific  method  in  general  use  for  checking  up  the  efficiency 
of  the  employment  department.  The  applicants  selected  may 
succeed  or  may  fail,  but  there  are  no  known  standards  according 
to  which  they  have  been  selected  and  there  is  no  checking 
back  to  discover  how  those  failing  and  those  succeeding  were 
selected.  When  goods  are  found  defective,  means  are  taken  to 
discover  the  cause.  When  employees  who  have  been  approved 
by  the  employment  department  do  not  make  good,  it  is  at- 
tributed to  chance  or  to  luck. 

The  employment  department  of  the  silk  company  previously 
referred  to  had  to  select  men  in  large  numbers  to  perform  a 
very  definite  kind  of  work.  The  number  of  failures  was  so 
great  that  the  situation  became  critical.  Instead  of  crediting 
tha  failures  to  chance,  the  suspicion  arose  that  the  wrong  kinds 
of  men  w^ere  being  selected  for  the  position.  A  study  was 
made  of  the  abilitj'  and  personal  characteristics  necessary  for 
success  at  the  particular  work.  Tests  were  then  devised  to 
discover  such  aptitude  in  applicants.  Before  applying  the  tests 
to  new  applicants  they  were  tried  on  the  men  at  work  at  the 
task.  Of  all  the  men  at  work  at  the  task  it  was  desired  to  have 
tested  about  ten  who  were  extremely  efficient,  about  ten  who 
were  distinctly  unfit  for  the  task,  and  about  ten  who  were  in- 
termediate between  these  extremes.  All  of  the  men  were  to  be 
known  well  by  more  than  two  of  the  bosses.  The  group  as  tested 
actually  consisted  of  26  instead  of  30.  The  tests  were  applied 
by  persons  who  knew  none  of  the  26  employees  and  who  were 
not  familiar  with  the  achievements  of  any  of  them.  The  results 
of  the  experiment  were  shown  in  Table  III. 


234  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


First  Method  of  Testing  the  Tests 

The  firm  rank  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  the  bosses  as  to 
the  value  of  the  men  to  the  company  and  the  test  rank  is  the 
way  tlie  men  were  ranked  by  the  tests.  For  instance,  employee 
A  was  judged  by  the  bosses  to  be  the  best  of  the  group,  and 
tied  for  second  place  according  to  the  tests.  The  Firm  and 
the  Tests  agreed  perfectly  as  to  which  men  should  occupy  the 
first  seven  positions.  That  is  to  say,  the  seven  which  were 
thought  to  be  best  by  the  Firm  were  also  found  best  by  the 
Tests.  There  is  also  almost  perfect  agreement  as  to  which  ten 
are  at  the  bottom  and  which  nine  are  intermediate  between  the 
top  group  and  the  bottom  group.  In  fact,  there  is  greater 
agreement  between  the  findings  of  the  Tests  and  the  Firm 
judgment  than  there  is  between  any  two  of  the  bosses.  In  this 
particular  instance  the  tests  were  applied  in  a  few  hours  and 
the  findings  classified  the  employees  as  accurately  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  firm  who  had  known  and  observed  the  men  for  years. 

This  method  of  testing  tests  is  to  be  recommended.  Any 
tests  that  are  to  be  employed  in  selecting  applicants  for  a  par- 
ticular class  of  work  should  be  able  to  differentiate  the  good 
from  poor  workers  already  emploj'ed  in  that  particular  capacity. 

A  second  method  of  testing  out  tests  is  to  keep  carefully 
written  records  of  the  tests,  expressed  in  measurable  terms. 
When  the  applicants  have  been  accepted  and  put  to  work 
their  achievements  must  be  expressed  in  measurable  terms. 
These  two  measurements  should  then  be  brought  together  and 
should  show  some  appreciable  degree  of  correlation.  The 
standard  set  by  the  tests  should  be  compared  with  other  stand- 
ards and  the  most  successful  standard  in  each  case  retained. 

The  tobacco  company  referred  to  in  an  earlier  instalment 
attempted  to  put  its  selling  organization  on  a  scientific  basis. 
The  territory  of  each  salesman  was  studied  by  an  expert  sales 
engineer  and  a  definite  task  or  quota  for  the  salesman  assigned. 
In  a  good  territory  the  task  was  high,  in  a  poor  territory  it  was 
low.  In  each  case  the  task  was  what  a  good  man  could  ac- 
complish with  ordinary  industry  and  ability.  To  exceed  the 
task  in  the  good  territory,  by  50  per  cent,  was  assumed  to  be 
just  as  great  a  success  as  to  exceed  the  task,  by  50  per  cent,  in 
the  poor  territory.    The  records  of  the  company  showed  that 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        235 

of  all  the  hundreds  of  salesmen,  only  about  60  per  cent  were 
selling  as  much  as  the  assigned  quota,  and  that  only  about  15 
per  cent  of  all  the  new  salesmen  added  to  the  force  remained 
on  the  company's  books  for  as  long  a  time  as  twelve  months. 

Raising  the  Standard  of  New  Employees 

Thereupon  tests  were  devised  to  raise  the  standard  of  new 
employees.  Among  the  first  group  of  applicants  tested,  most 
of  them  were  rejected  as  not  possessing  the  required  native 
ability,  tact  and  selling  ability.  The  ten  selected  and  put  to  work 
in  April,  1914,  in  one  territory,  made  the  record  shown  in  Table 
IV.  They  were  not  placed  on  the  task  and  bonus  basis  until 
September,  1914. 

TABLE  IV 

Sept.  Oct.  Nov.  Dec.  Jan.  Feb.  Mar.  Apr.  May  June 

7         4         9         8        

9         8         4  3          I          I          I          1          I          I 

2          5          2.5  5          3          2          2          2          2          2 

6         3         8         7        

10       10  10         9         7         7         7        

S         2          2.5  6         6         4-5       6         s         s          3 

3  6  5  1  2  3  5        

8          9          6  2          4          4-5       3          4          4          4 

4  7  7        


Salesman 

A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

J 

III 


In  the  tests  Salesman  A  stood  highest,  but  in  his  sales  record, 
for  September,  he  stood  seventh  in  his  group.  Salesman  J  bare- 
ly came  up  to  the  high  standard  set  and  he  was  tenth  in  the 
approved  group.  It  will  be  observed  that  he  was  the  best  in 
the  group  in  September  sales.  By  July  ist,  1915,  only  five  of 
the  original  ten  were  in  the  employ  of  the  company.  This 
seems  to  be  a  very  bad  showing,  but  since  the  company's  books 
show  that  only  15  per  cent  of  the  new  men  stay  as  long  as 
twelve  months  this  is  relatively  a  good  showing,  since  50  per 
cent  of  these  men  have  remained  more  than  twelve  months. 
When  the  work  of  each  man  is  considered  so  long  as  he  re- 
mained with  the  company,  it  is  found  that  they  made  their  quota 
85  per  cent  of  the  months,  as  compared  with  the  60  per  cent 
made  by  all  the  salesmen  of  the  company.  The  rank  order  as 
determined  by  the  tests  is  not  verified  for  any  month  until  June. 
The  applicant  who  stood  first  in  the  tests  showed  in  practice 
that  he  had  great  selling  ability,  but  he  was  disqualified  for  an- 
other reason.  The  two  who  stood  second  and  third  in  the  tests 
gradually  won  their  way  to  the  head  of  the  group  and  are  prov- 


236  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ing  themselves  to  be  decided  assets  to  the  company.  Because 
definite  measurable  reports  are  made  on  these  men  monthly  the 
efficiency  of  the  tests  can  be  checked  and  unless  they  continue 
to  produce  results  they  will  be  modified  or  discarded. 

Using  Ringers  or  Decoys  to   Test  Salesmen 

A  third  method  of  testing  tests  is  to  make  use  of  what  may 
well  be  called  ringers  or  decoys.  One  specialty  company  de- 
sired to  add  twenty-five  salesmen  in  one  city.  Sixty  applicants 
for  the  positions  were  to  be  tested  out  in  a  single  day.  Un- 
known to  those  conducting  the  tests,  the  company  had  one  of 
its  very  successful  salesmen  appear  as  an  applicant,  also  one 
salesman  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the  company  for  a 
long  time,  but  who  had  failed  and  was  to  be  dismised  the  next 
day.  If  the  tests  were  good  the  poor  salesman  would  be  re- 
jected by  them  and  the  good  salesman  selected.  In  the  try-out 
of  the  tests  the  successful  salesman  stood  as  the  ninth  in  the 
group  of  sixty  and  was  recommended  for  appointment;  and  the 
salesman  who  had  failed  stood  as  thirty- fourth  in  the  list  and 
was  recommended  for  rejection. 

The  medical  examination,  the  minimum  educational  require- 
ment, the  test  for  native  abilty,  and  the  tests  for  determining 
the  relative  rank  or  position  have  all  been  tried  out  and  no 
serious  difficulty  is  met  in  establishing  the  standard  and  apply- 
ing the  tests.  The  testing  has  been  checked  by  trying  out  the 
tests  on  persons  of  known  ability,  by  comparing  the  findings  of 
the  tests  with  the  later  accomplishments  of  those  selected,  and 
by  many  instances  in  which  ringers  or  decoys  were  mixed  in 
with  the  applicants.  In  dealing  with  these  data,  refined  statis- 
tical methods  have  been  used  and  where  possible  the  coefficient 
of  correlation  has  been  derived. 

To  be  scientific  in  the  selection  of  employees  it  is  not  essen- 
tial to  have  a  perfected  system  of  tests  to  begin  with.  It  is 
essential  that  use  should  be  made  of  a  scientific  method  of  check- 
ing results,  for  then  the  tests  can  be  improved  until  satisfactory 
results  are  secured. 

The  applying  of  the  tests  and  the  checking  of  the  results  may 
require  expert  ability  equal  to  that  of  the  testing  department  of 
a  manufacturing  plant.  But  the  widespread  use  of  scientific 
methods  and  of  expert  ability  in  selecting  the  personnel  of  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        237 

organization  is  certainly  a  thing  of  the  near  future.  It  is  not 
reasonable  to  assume  that  of  the  two  departments  spending  the 
money  for  the  firm,  the  purchasing  department  should  be  on 
a  scientific  basis,  but  the  employment  department  left  to 
chance. 


THE  THREE  POSITION  PLAN  OF  PROMOTION 

An  adequate  system  pf  promotion  is  the  solution  not  only  of 
holding  employees  in  an  organization,  but  also  of  the  employ- 
ment problem. 

There  is  much  emphasis  today  upon  the  proper  selection  of 
employees,  and  many  and  elaborate  systems  have  been  under- 
taken for  a  scientific,  or  near-scientific,  placement.  These  are 
not  in  any  wise  to  be  criticized,  for  the  selection  of  the  indi- 
viduals comprising  any  organization  is  important,  and  any  plan 
that  will  cause  the  employment  manager  to  plan  his  duties 
carefully  and  to  give  each  decision  on  the  fortunes  of  others 
careful  consideration  is  to  be  commended.  It  must  be  realized, 
however,  that  even'more  important  is  holding  and  helping  these 
employees  after  they  have  been  selected,  and  providing  an  ade- 
quate systematized  plan  of  advancement  for  them.  In  the 
Three  Position  Plan  of  Promotion  we  have  not  only  the  true 
and  proved  answer  to  the  problem  of  promotion,  but  also  the 
means  by  which  efficient  placement  becomes  almost  automatic, 
and  a  supply  of  desirable  applicants  for  any  vacant  position  is 
constantly  available.  No  system  of  placement  can  hope  to  suc- 
ceed unless  such  a  supply  of  applicants  is  available. 

We  wish  to  emphasize  then  three  points : 

1.  The  necessity  of  attracting  desirable  applicants. 

2.  The  necessity  of  holding,  fitting,  and  promoting  those  al- 
ready employed. 

3.  The  interdependence  of  these  two. 

We  have  never  known  a  better  friend  of  the  worker  than 
Mr.  James  Mapes  Dodge,  and  he  was  wont  to  emphasize  and 
demonstrate  the  benefit  not  only  to  the  employee,  but  also  to 
the  organization  of  holding  the  cooperating  employee,  and  the 
great  and  needless  loss  to  the  organization,  to  the  worker,  and 

>  By  Frank  B.  Gilbreth  and  Lillian  M.  Gilbreth.  Consulting  Engineers. 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy.     65:289-96.     May,  1916. 


238  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

to  society  in  a  constant  change  of  the  personnel  of  the  organi- 
zation. Now,  no  organization  can  hope  to  hold  its  members  tliat 
does  not  consider  not  only  the  welfare  of  the  organization  as  a 
whole,  but  also  the  welfare  of  the  individuals  composing  that 
organization. 

The  Three  Position  Plan  of  Promotion  considers  each  man 
as  occupying  three  positions  in  the  organization,  and  considers 
these  three  positions  as  constantly  changing  in  an  upward  spiral, 
as  the  man  is  promoted  from  the  lowest  position  that  he  occupies 
and  into  the  position  next  higher  than  the  highest  position  that 
he  occupies.  The  three  positions  are  as  follows:  first,  and  low- 
est, the  position  that  the  man  has  last  occupied  in  the  organiza- 
tion ;  second,  the  position  that  the  man  is  occupying  at  present 
in  the  organization ;  third,  and  highest,  the  position  that  the  man 
will  next  occupy.  In  the  first  position  the  worker  occupies  the 
place  of  the  teacher,  this  position  being  at  the  same  time  oc- 
cupied by  two  other  men,  that  is,  by  the  worker  doing  the 
work,  who  receives  little  or  no  instruction  in  the  duties  of  that 
position  except  in  an  emergency,  and  by  the  worker  below  who 
is  learning  the  work.  In  the  second  position  the  worker  is  ac- 
tually in  charge  of  the  work,  and  is  constantly  also  the  teacher 
of  the  man  next  below  him,  who  will  next  occupy  the  position. 
He  is  also,  in  emergencies,  a  learner  of  the  duties  of  his  present 
position  from  the  man  above  him.  In  the  third  position  the 
worker  occupies  the  place  of  learner,  and  is  being  constantly  in- 
structed by  the  man  in  the  duties  of  the  position  immediately 
above. 

Naturally  a  plan  like  this  demands  a  close  coordination  of 
all  positions.  This  is  provided  for  through  the  master  promo- 
tion chart.  This  chart  is  in  the  hands  of  the  man  in  charge  of 
promotion.  It  is  slightly  different  for  each  organization.  It 
consists  of  a  schematic  arrangement  of  all  positions  in  the  or- 
ganization, so  arranged  as  to  provide  for  lines  of  most  rapid 
advancement,  along  the  various  functions  and  subfunctions, 
under  which  the  measured  functional  management  by  which 
we  operate,  works.  The  great  advantage  of  such  a  chart  is 
that  it  makes  possible  visualizing  the  complete  problem  of  the 
organization's  needs  in  teaching  and  preparing  its  members. 
The  direct  product  of  this  is  that  the  man  in  charge  of  pro- 
motion sees  clearly  the  needs  and  the  means  of  filling  them, 
the  demand  and  the   supply.     The  important  by-product  is  the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        239 

gradual  evolution  of  permanent,  rapid,  direct  paths  of  promo- 
tion. This  means  the  abolishment  of  the  "blind  alley"  job,  that 
is,  a  position  into  which  some  member  of  the  organization  drifts 
with  no  chance  for  advancement.  Another  by-product  of  this 
chart  is  the  fact  that  the  promotion  head,  the  promotion  man- 
ager, or  chief  of  promotion,  as  he  has  been  variously  called,  can 
arrange  for  shifting  or  transferring  the  worker  easily,  if  he 
sees  that  he  has  been  improperly  placed,  or,  if  he  develops  abili- 
ties along  some  unexpected  line.  This  is  often  the  case  under 
this  type  of  management  where  there  is  great  opportunity  for 
the  development  of  latent,  as  well  as  apparent,  abilities.  This 
master  promotion  chart  is  the  great  educative  force  to  the  man- 
agement as  to  the  importance  of  proper  promotion. 

The  interests  of  the  individual  worker  and  his  education  as 
to  the  importance  of  promotion  are  carried  on  through  the  in- 
dividual promotion  charts.  Upon  these  the  records  of  each  and 
every  member  of  the  organization  are  separately  kept.  These 
sheets  are  often  called  "fortune  sheets,"  and  it  is  this  aspect  of 
them  that  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  psychologist.  When  a 
worker  becomes  a  member  of  the  organization  he  is  called  into 
the  department  in  charge  of  advancement  or  promotion,  and  given 
one  of  these  fortune  sheets.  Upon  it  is  shown  his  present  po- 
sition, and  he  and  the  man  in  charge  outline  together  his  possible 
and  probable  line  of  advancement.  The  sheet  then  becomes  his 
fortune  map,  or  fortune  schedule.  The  projected  line  of  pro- 
motion is  outlined  in  green,  and  upon  it  are  placed  the  dates 
at  which  it  is  hoped  he  may  reach  the  various  stages  of  ad- 
vancement. At  set  times  the  worker  and  the  promotion  chief, 
or  one  of  his  helpers,  meet,  and  the  line  of  actual  progress  of 
advancement  of  the  worker  is  traced  upon  the  map  in  red,  with 
the  dates  of  achieving  the  various  positions.  The  two  then 
consult  as  to  existing  conditions,  the  special  reading  and  study- 
ing necessary  for  fitting  for  the  new  positions,  possible  changes, 
or  betterments.  The  direct  product  of  this  is  that  the  worker 
understands  what  he  is  doing,  gets  expert  advice  for  greater 
progress,  and  realizes  that  there  is,  and  must  be,  cooperation 
between  him  and  the  promotion  department  for  the  good  of  all 
concerned.  The  by-products  are  equally,  or  more,  important. 
One  is  that  the  worker  is  glad  to  impart  all  information  that 
would  be  of  help  to  the  organization  as  to  his  history  and  ante- 
cedents, his  home  and  other  social  conditions  outside  the  plant, 


240  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

that  help  or  hinder  his  plans  of  preparing,  ambitions,  etc.  It 
is  common  practice  in  these  days  to  present  the  applicant  with 
blanks  to  be  filled  in  with  all  this  information.  We  have  such 
blanks,  and  use  them  in  selecting  applicants,  always  with  the 
proviso  that,  if  the  applicant  shows  any  disinclination  to  fill  out 
such  parts  of  the  blank  as  tell  of  his  ambitions  or  other  details, 
which  he  may  consider  confidential,  he  be  not  required  to  do  so. 
This  information  has  been  invariably  volunteered,  when  the  for- 
tune map,  or  schedule,  is  understood.  Naturally  the  applicant 
must  furnish  such  information  as  will  show  his  ability  and  re- 
liability; but,  as  we  will  see  later,  these  are  so  supplemented  by 
data  obtained  through  other  sources  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
ask  for  information  usually  considered  confidential  before  it  is 
volunteered.  The  second  by-product  of  these  fortune  sheets  is 
directly  connected  with  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  getting 
constantly  a  group  of  desirable  applicants  from  which  to  select 
more  wisely.  Thus,  when  the  worker  looks  at  his  fortune 
sheet,  and  understands  the  three  position  plan  of  employment, 
he  recognizes  that  he  must  train  some  one  to  take  his  position 
before  he  can  hope  to  be  most  rapidly  advanced.  Naturally  he 
first  looks  around  in  the  organization  to  see  who  is  available, 
for  it  is  always  desired  that  those  within  the  organization  be 
advanced  first.  However,  if  no  such  person  is  available,  he  re- 
views his  entire  acquaintance,  and  all  possible  sources  for  new 
workers,  in  order  that  he  may  obtain  the  most  desirable  person 
easy  to  train  into  that  position.  It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell 
long  upon  the  advantages  of  this  system  for  holding  members 
already  in  the  organization.  No  worker  who  is  constitutionally 
able  to  become  a  permanent  member  of  an  organization  will  wish 
to  change,  if  he  is  receiving  adequate  pay  and  has  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  advancement,  especially,  if,  as  here,  he  is  a  member 
of  a  group  where  it  is  to  the  advantage — more  than  that — ac- 
tually to  the  selfish  interest,  of  every  member  to  push  all  higher 
members  up,  and  to  teach  and  fit  others  to  advance  from  below. 
Inseparably  associated  with  this  is  the  fact  that  any  worker 
will  be  ready  and  glad  to  enter  an  organization  where  such  con- 
ditions exist,  and  a  desirable  applicant  will  automatically  pre- 
sent himself,  when  needed,  at  the  direct  request  of  some  one 
who  knows  his  particular  fitness  for  the  job,  and  desires  him 
to  have  it.     This  selecting  of  the  worker  by  the  worker  is  real 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        241 

democracy.  An  organization  built  thus  has  proved  to  be  the 
most  satisfying  to  both  management  and  workers. 

Now  there  are  various  questions  that  may  arise  concerning 
this  subject,  that  it  is  well  to  answer  here. 

1.  What  becomes  of  the  workers  who  find  exactly  the  po- 
sitions that  suit  them,  and  have  no  desire  to  advance? 

The  answer  to  this  is  that,  if  a  worker  finds  such  a  position,  he 
is  retained  in  it,  and  that  others  who  go  beyond  it  are  trained 
by  him  in  the  work  of  that  position  until  they  know  enough 
about  it  to  advance  to  the  next  higher  grade.  This  often  hap- 
pens, especially  in  the  case  of  the  workers  who  prefer  positions 
entailing  comparatively  little  responsibility,  and  who,  arriving  at 
some  work  that  satisfies  them,  and  that  involves  but  slight  re- 
sponsibility, choose  to  make  that  particular  work  a  life  voca- 
tion. If,  as  is  seldom  the  case,  a  second  worker  is  found  who 
desires  to  remain  in  the  same  position,  it  is  sometimes  advis- 
able to  place  such  a  contented  specialist  in  another  organiza- 
tion, as  trained  and  satisfied  expert  workers  and  teachers  are 
all  too  rare. 

2.  If   promotion   is   constant,   are   not  men  ■  constantly   pro- 
moted or  graduated  out  of  the  organization? 

The  answer  to  this  is  "Yes,  and  always  to  waiting  and  far  bet- 
ter positions." 

3.  What  becomes  of  such  well  known  "blind  alley"  jobs  as 
that  of  elevator  or  errand  boy? 

These  positions  are  transformed  into  training  stations  or 
schools.  Through  them  the  young  worker  is  put  in  touch  with 
various  lines  of  activity  in  the  organization  and  his  possibilities, 
capabilities  and  tastes  are  noted.  Tending  jobs  under  this 
type  of  management  are  also  so  used  as  training  stations.  The 
new  work  for  crippled  soldiers,  which  is  now  occupying  so 
much  of  our  attention,  is  also  furnishing  a  means  of  filling  such 
"blind  alley"  jobs.  A  position  that  might  be  deadening  for  a 
young,  ambitious  boy,  or  for  a  progressive  worker,  might  prove 
the  salvation  of  a  maimed,  or  crippled,  worker  who  might  oth- 
erwise become  an  idle,  unproductive,  and  worst  of  all,  a  discour- 
aged and  unhappy  member  of  the  community. 

4.  How  can  the  close  "human  touch"  essential  to  this  system 
of  promotion  be  maintained  in  a  large  organization? 

We  maintain  this  spirit  through  what  we  call  the  "Godfather 


242  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Movement."  This  is  especially  successful  where  there  are  many 
young  workers.  Some  older  man  in  the  organization,  prefer- 
ably in  the  same  department,  or  interested  in  the  same  line  of 
work,  is  made  the  godfather  of  several  young,  or  inexperienced, 
workers,  and  keeps  in  touch  constantly  with  their  progress.  We 
call  this  man  "the  Godfather"  in  all  foreign  countries,  where 
the  relation  between  godparent  and  godchild  is  an  unusually 
close  one,  and  is  very  similar  to  the  sort  of  relation  supposed 
to  exist  here  between  members  of  the  same  family.  It  resembles, 
perhaps,  in  this  country  more  the  "Big  Brother"  or  "Big  Sister" 
movement  now  so  popular. 

5.  What  are  the  actual  results  of  the  workers  already  em- 
ployed using  this  system  of  promotion. 

They  are  most  satisfactory  in  every  case.  In  organizations 
where  we  have  installed  this  system  as  a  part  of  our  plan  of 
management  we  have  seen 

a.  Office  and  messenger  boys  pass  through  five  positions  in  one  year. 

b.  A  messenger  boy  become  head  storekeeper  in  three  years. 

c.  A   mechanic   become   night   superintendent   in   four  years. 

d.  A   foreman   become   superintendent   in   two  years. 

e.  A   receiving  clerk  become  head  production  clerk  in  three  years. 

f.  A  stenographer  pass  through  five  positions  to  motion  study  assistant 

in   one   year. 

g.  A  stenographer  pass  through  five  positions  to  assistant  chief  of  the 

three   position   plan   in    one   and   one   half  years. 

h.     An   office   boy  become   assistant   purchasing  agent   in   three  years. 

i.     A  half  time  apprentice  become  foreman  in  three  and  one  half  years. 

j.     A  stenographer  become  head  of  the  department  of  graphical  presen- 
tation   of   statistics. 

k.     A   laborer  become   superintendent   in   nine   years. 

and  other  cases  too  numerous  to  mention,  many  advancing  in 
spite  of  predicted  dire  failure  of  the  plan  of  selection,  placement 
and  promotion.  The  greatest  good  is,  perhaps,  not  the  individual 
advancement,  but  the  increased  interest  and  zeal  of  all  the 
workers  under  this  plan. 

6.  What   are   the   practical   results   on   supply   of  applicants 
and  on  better  placement? 

In  our  experience  we  have  never  failed  when  using  this  plan 
of  promotion  to  supply  all  needs  of  the  organization  almost  im- 
mediately with  most  desirable  and  efficient  workers.  Every 
member  of  the  organization  working  under  this  plan  has  be- 
come an  active  and  successful  "employment  bureau  man." 

7.  What  are  the  advantages  of  this  whole  plan  to  the  man 
in  charge  of  the  function  of  employment f 

He  benefits  by  this  plan,  perhaps,  more  than  any  one  else.  He 
comes  in  close  touch  with  every  member  of  the  organization. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  243 

It  is  to  the  advantage  of  every  member  to  tell  him  exactly 
which  individuals  he  thinks  had  better  follow  him,  whether 
these  are  inside  or  outside  the  organization.  Imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment that  you  are  such  a  chief.  A  comes  in  and  says,  "Air. 
Blank,  I  should  like  0  to  follow  me  in  my  position."  B  comes 
in  and  saj^s,  "I  should  like  O  to  follow  me  in  my  position,"  C 
comes  in  and  says,  "Mr.  Blank,  I  should  like  O  to  follow  me  in 
my  position."  Naturally  j-ou  would  recognize  the  wisdom  of 
getting  better  acquainted  with  O.  Or,  perhaps,  you  suggest  to 
A,  "I  think  that  M  would  be  a  good  man  to  follow  you,"  and 
A  says,  "No,  I  think  I  had  better  have  some  one  else."  You  sug- 
gest M  also  to  B  and  C,  who  reply  somewhat  along  similar  lines. 
There  may  be  nothing  fundamentally  wrong  with  M,  but  the 
line  you  have  planned  will  probably  not  receive  as  much  co- 
operation as  it  should,  and,  in  any  case,  there  is  something  there 
worth  investigating.  Again,  a  worker  comes  to  you  and  say?, 
"Mr.  Blank,  I  know  a  man  who  is  not  in  this  organization  who 
would  be  just  the  person  to  follow  me.  You  know  there  is  no 
one  available  just  now,  as  the  man  below  me  is  satisfied  with 
his  job."  Here  follow  particulars  as  to  the  desired  man's  edu- 
cation, training,  etc.,  which  act  as  the  supplementary  data  be- 
fore mentioned.  The  recommender  is  given  a  blank  form  of 
"recommendation"  to  fill  out  for  filing,  whether  or  not  the 
proposed  man  is  hired.  This  naturallj'  leads  to  the  question 
8.  Can  any  part  of  this  plan  of  promotion  he  used  without 
the  other  parts? 
The  answer  is  "Yes"  and  "No."  "No,"  if  the  desired  results 
are  to  be  obtained  in  full,  since  the  entire  system  is  interrelated 
and  correlated  with  the  complete  plan  of  Measured  Functional 
Management.  "Yes,"  in  that  the  fundamental  ideas  underlying 
this  plan  can  undoubtedly  be  worked  out  in  many  ways.  The 
immediate  success  of  this  plan  is  fostered  by  a  carefully  devised 
set  of  forms  and  charts  and  other  devices  for  visualizing  the 
possibilities  of  individual  success  that  have  stood  the  test  of  time 
and  use.  The  ultimate  success  of  this  plan  depends  upon  the 
principles^  that  underlie  it,  giving  every  man  a  square  deal,  a 
maximum  chance  for  cooperation,  advancement  and  prosperity, 
in  other  words,  the  opportunity  for  simultaneous  individual  and 
social  development. 

*    See  The  Psychology  of  Management.      Sturgis  and  Walton,  N.  Y. 


244  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


APPOINTMENTS  AND  DISMISSALS* 

The  practise  of  industrial  establishments  in  taking  work- 
men into  their  service  seems  to  vary  enormously  even  in  the 
same  trade.  At  one  end  of  the  scale  we  see  a  foreman  sum- 
marily picking  out  this  man  or  that  from  a  surging  crowd  at 
the  factory  gates.  At  the  other  end  we  have  all  the  appoint- 
ments, even  of  labourers,  made  after  elaborate  enquiries  by  a 
special  "Employment  Department",  or  by  one  of  the  partners  in 
the  firm,  or  by  a  manager  in  high  position,  specially  deputed  for 
this  duty.  In  the  one  case  (leaving  out  of  account  the  bru- 
tality of  the  procedure,  and  the  serious  injury  to  the  com- 
munity that  it  causes,  of  which,  usually,  the  manager  is  quite 
unaware)'' the  assumption  seems  to  be  that  one  man  will  do  as  well 
as  another ;  that  character  and  conduct  are  of  no  consequence  in 
"mere"  workmen  ;  and  that  a  staff  which  is  a  constantly  shifting 
congeries  of  atoms  will  be  as  efficient  in  production  as  one  which 
is  an  organic  whole.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  these  assump- 
tions are  fundamentally  erroneous.  It  may  seem  unimportant 
what  sort  of  labourer  is  taken  on  for  a  simple  job  of  loading 
or  unloading,  fetching  and  carrying.  The  whole  staff  is  made 
up  of  individuals ;  and  what  the  whole  staff  will  be,  and  how  it 
will  work,  depends,  very  largely,  on  how  each  person  is  selected.* 

1  From  "The  Works  Manager  of  Today"  by  Sidney  Webb.  Copyright, 
19 1 7,  by  Longmans  Green  &  Company,  and  reprinted  here  by  permission 
of  the  publishers. 

^  Naturally,  I  am  not  oblivious  of  the  difficulties  presented  by  the  vary- 
ing amount  of  work  to  be  done,  or  by  seasonal  trades;  but  the  resort  to 
casual  labour  must  be  recognized  as  always  involving  a  loss  of  efficiency, 
and  therefore  as  an  expedient  to  be  as  far  as  possible  minimised.  So  easy 
has  it  usually  been  to  take  on  casual  labour,  that  I  do  not  feel  assured 
that  managers  have  hitherto  given  all  the  heed  that  they  might  have  done 
to  securing  continuity   of  production,   and   therefore   of   employment. 

See,  on  this  point,  Unemployment,  by  W.  H.  Beveridge,  and  The  Pre- 
vention  of   Destitution,   by  S.   and  B.   Webb   (191 1.   Longmans). 

^  Workmen  will  sometimes  urge  objections  to  any  elaborate  enquiry  be- 
fore a  man  is  taken  on;  and  will  occasionally  claim  that  an  employer  has 
nothing  to  do  with  anything  hut  their  technical  proficiency.  But  it  is 
really  a  rise  in  the  status  of  the  manual  worker  to  treat  him,  in  this  re- 
spect, exactly  as  we  treat  a  clerk  or  a  manager.  He  must  cease  to  be  en- 
gaged as  a  "hand,"  to  be  taken  on  and  dropped  at  an  hour's  notice,  just 
as  it  suits  the  employer's  convenience,  and  must  receive  an  appointment  as 
a  responsible  memtjer  of  an  establishment,  in  which  a  durable  relationship 
is  contemplated. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  minute  inquisition  into  the  candidate  s  private 
life,  his  savings,  his  church-going,  his  recreations,  and  his  family  relation- 
ships— in  which  some  British  employers  are  beginning  to  copy  American 
practice — constitutes  an  unjustifiable  invasion  of  privacy;  and  is  unwar- 
ranted whether  the  appointment  to  be  filled  be  that  of  manager  or  labourer. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        245 

In  the  United  States,  where  the  methods  of  "hiring  and  fir- 
ing" have  often  been  much  more  summary  and  ruthless  than 
those  to  which  we  are  accustomed  in  Great  Britain,  the  ex- 
cessive "turnover"  of  labour  thereby  produced  is  becoming 
more  and  more  recognized  as  a  serious  drawback  to  industrial 
efficiency.  The  building  up  of  the  right  kind  of  stafif,  its  re- 
tention in  the  service  once  it  has  been  secured,  and  its  skilful 
recruiting  from  year  to  year,  constitute,  in  fact,  one  of  the 
most  important  elements  in  management.  It  is  hard  to  make 
a  foreman  understand  that,  though  one  demoralised  workman 
may  not  make  much  difference  to  the  net  productivity  (though 
every  little  tells),  the  difference  between  a  whole  stafif  of  de- 
moralised workmen  may  amount,  in  a  year,  to  ever  so  much 
more  than  the  salary  even  of  the  General  Manager  himself. 

Now,  any  careful  and  systematic  organization  of  the  en- 
gaging of  workmen  necessarily  involves  the  abandonment  of 
"patronage"  by  foremen  or  managers.  Most  people  like  power, 
even  in  small  matters,  and  the  opportunity  of  doing  favours  and 
bestowing  benefits,  especially  when  not  at  their  own  cost !  It  is 
obvious  that  efficiency  (and  also  justice)  demands  that  for  every 
vacancy,  high  or  low,  the  best  available  man  shall  be  selected, 
irrespective  of  whether  or  not  he  is  related  to  a  foreman,  or 
is  a  friend  of  his,  or  a  friend  of  his  friend,  or  a  public-house 
acquaintance.  Anything  else  is  jobbery;  and  it  is  worth  re- 
membering that,  in  the  Great  Britain  of  today,  this  is  one  of 
the  ways  in  which  private  enterprise  is  still  disgraced.  It  is  a 
demonstrable  fact  that  jobbery,  in  this  sense,  is,  in  Great  Bri- 
tain at  any  rate,  more  prevalent  in  private  business  than  it  is 
in  municipal  afifairs,  and  more  prevalent  even  in  municipal  af- 
fairs than  in  Government  Departments.  This  is  particularly  the 
case  with  regard  to  the  better  paid  and  socially  more  desirable 
appointments,  which,  in  private  businesses,  are  still  subjected 
to  the  claims  of  family  relationship  to  an  extent  now  unknown 
in  public  service.  It  is  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  profes- 
sional manager  to  put  a  stop  to  jobbery,  even  with  regard  to  the 
humblest  situations.  Of  course,  there  are  lower  depths  than  a 
simple  favourtism.  Unless  all  appointments  are  centralised  and 
systematically  scrutinized  there  may  easily  be  bribery,  and  the 
levying  by  foremen  of  what  is  virtually  blackmail,  with  all  sorts 
of  insidious  degradation  of  the  stafif. 

I  cannot  believe  that  what  I  may  call  the  system  of  trial  and 


246  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

error  is  the  best  way  of  choosing  workmen.  To  take  on  a  man 
at  the  gate,  who  says  he  possesses  such  and  such  skill  and  then 
to  put  him  to  work  under  the  foreman's  eye — the  foreman  "fir- 
ing" him  after  a  few  hours  because  he  is  not  skilful  enough,  and 
then  taking  on  another  man  in  the  same  way — this  does  not 
seem  a  scientific  or  a  civilised  way  of  recruiting  a  staff.  Even 
with  respect  to  technical  efiiciency  there  must  be  better  ways  of 
choosing  men  then  this,  though  it  is  beyond  my  competence  to 
name  them. 

There  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  more  to  be  considered  in  mak- 
ing an  appointment  than  the  mere  technical  proficiency  of  the 
candidate.  If  you  are  picking  a  man  to  form  part  of  your, 
staff,  you  need  to  consider  what  will  be  his  personal  influence 
on  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  It  is  plainly  vital  to 
consider  whether  his  admission  is  likely  to  raise  or  to  lower  the 
total  efficiency  of  the  workshop ;  and  this  depends  to  no  small 
extent  on  its  "tone".  It  may  seem  a  counsel  of  perfection,  but 
I  do  not  see  how  we  can  escape  from  the  inference  that  if  we 
are  aiming  at  the  perfect  industrial  efficiency,  it  is  important 
to  take  the  same  sort  of  trouble  in  selecting  artisans  and  la- 
bourers and  in  retaining  them  once  they  are  selected  and  in 
keeping  them  in  a  cordial  and  satisfied  state  of  mind,  as  wc 
already  do  with  regard  to  clerks  and  mangers.  Moreover, 
there  is  a  further  consideration.  It  is  not  only  what  a  man 
may  do  to  the  other  workmen  that  is  important,  but  also  what 
the  other  workmen  may  do  to  him.  The  existing  staff  has 
some  claim  to  have  its  feelings  respected,  as  regards  those  who 
are  set  to  work  among  them  in  close  personal  companionship. 
It  may  seriously  interfere  with  efficiency  if  a  man  or  a  woman 
is  brought  in  against  whom  there  is,  for  any  reason,  a  strong 
feeling  of  antagonism  or  disapproval,  whether  this  feeling  is 
based  on  religious  or  racial  prejudice  or  jealousy,  or  on  per- 
sonal character  or  conduct.  It  is  simply  courting  trouble  to  im- 
pose a  notorious  non-unionist  on  a  strongly  union  shop.  It 
is  simply  ruination  to  a  female  staif  to  introduce  workers  irre- 
spective of  their  personal  character.  In  the  same  way,  it  is 
necessary  to  keep  a  constant  watch  on  foremen  and  sub-ordi- 
nate  managers,  in  order  promptly  to  detect  the  existence  of 
any  feelings  of  anger  or  hostility  or  unpopularity  that  they 
arouse  among  those  who  are  subject  to  them.  The  perfect  fore- 
man or  manager  will     know  how  to  do  his  duty     with  all  due 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        247 

strictness,  but  with  such  obvious  impartiality  and  fairness,  and 
such  genuine  courtesy  and  kindUness — in  short,  with,  in  the  best 
sense,  such  good  manners — that  he  will  be  respected  and  liked 
by  the  workshop.  We  cannot  all  attain  such  perfection.  But 
it  remains  true  that  a  foreman  or  manager  who  is  seriously  dis- 
liked, from  whatever  cause,  has  a  very  lowering  effect  on  effi- 
ciency; and  he  had  better  be  moved  and  warned.  Which  large 
establishment  will  be  the  first  to  start  a  school  for  foremen?  It 
would  be,  very  largely,  a  school  of  manners. 

Similar  considerations  apply,  of  course,  to  dismissals.  What 
workmen  nowadays  resent  more  than  anything  else  is  the 
capricious  tyranny  to  which  they  are  still  often  subjected,  very 
largely  by  foremen,  but  sometimes  by  managers  and  by  em- 
ployers themselves.  I  am  afraid  that  most  business  enterprises 
of  any  magnitude  are  here  sadly  at  fault.  Lest  I  should  be  sup- 
posed to  be  merely  imagining  what  goes  on  in  many  a  great  fac- 
tory in  the  United  Kingdom,  or  to  be  taking  a  biassed  or  an 
exaggerated  view,  I  will  quote  here  the  recent  testimony  of  an 
English  engineering  employer. 

In  most  works,  in  the  engineering  trade  at  least,  the  whole  industrial 
life  of  a  workman  is  in  the  hands  of  his  foreman.  The  foreman  chooses 
him  from  among  the  applicants  at  the  works  gate;  often  he  settles  what 
wages  he  shall  get;  no  advance  of  wage  or  promotion  is  possible  except 
on  his  initiative;  he  often  sets  the  piece-price  and  has  power  to  cut  it 
when  he  wishes;  and,  lastly,  he  almost  always  has  unrestricted  power  of 
discharge.  These  great  powers  are  exercised  by  men  chosen  generally  for 
their  energy  and  driving  power.  They  are  usually  promoted  workmen, 
with  no  very  marked  superiority  in  education,  outlook,  or  sympathy  over 
those  whom  they  command.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore  that  these 
powers  are  often  abused;  and  a  tyranny,  both  in  matters  of  details  and 
principle,  established,  which  the  higher  management,  even  if  it  has  the  de- 
sire, has  very  little  power  to  soften  or  control.  The  most  glaring  case  of 
this  is  usually  in  connection  with  discharge.  The  workman  may  be  told 
by  the  foreman  at  a  moment's  notice  that  he  is  no  longer  wanted.  If  the 
the  department  is  obviously  short  of  work,  this  is  accepted  generally  with 
remarkably  good  grace,  but  the  discharge  may  just  as  likely  be  the  result 
of  "words"  with  the  foreman,  and  in  that  case  will  almost  certainly  be 
felt  to  be  an  act  of  spite  or  revenge,  and  be  resented  accordingly.  The 
workman  has  no  court  of  appeal  against  the  edict;  it  is  almost  impossible 
for  him  to  get  past  the  foreman  to  see  the  manager  or  a  director,  and 
even  if  he  should  succeed,  the  management  has  practically  no  choice  but 
to  back  up  its  agent.  To  support  the  workman  against  the  decision  of  the 
foreman  would  generally  lead  to  the  resignation  of  the  latter,  whose  value 
to  the  firm  is  considerably  higher  than  that  of  any  individual  workman, 
and  whose  loss  cannot  be  lightly  faced.* 

I  hope  that  neither  this  candid  employer  nor  I  will  be  sup- 
posed to  be  bringing  an  indictment  against  all  foremen,  many 
of  whom  are  recognised  by  the  workmen  themselves  to  be  fair- 
minded  men,  striving  to  do  justice  in  a  very  difficult  situation. 

1  "Industrial  Reconstruction  and  Employer's  View."  The  Athenaeum. 
March,   1917. 


248  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Nor  need  we  be  supposed  to  be  oblivious  of  the  manifold  faults 
and  deficiencies  of  the  workmen.  Equally  do  we  see  many  em- 
ployers and  managers  striving  constantly  for  justice  and  hu- 
manity. My  object  here  is  to  ask  every  manager  within  my 
reach  what  organization  there  is  in  his  works,  what  steps  he 
has  himself  taken,  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  misuse  by  the 
foremen  of  the  very  great  powers  with  which  they  are  nearly 
always  entrusted.  It  is,  I  venture  to  say,  one  of  the  imperative 
duties  of  a  manager  to  contrive  some  system  by  which  this 
power — which  we  know  is  always  liable  to  misuse — is  auto- 
matically prevented  from  developing  into  tyranny. 

On  the  particular  point  of  the  power  of  dismissal,  I  can- 
not help  doubting  whether — apart,  perhaps,  from  the  summary 
termination  of  the  first  day's  probation  of  a  new  workman — this 
should  ever  be  exercised,  at  any  rate  so  far  as  concerns  what 
may  be  called  an  established  member  of  the  staff  (however  low 
may  be  his  wage),  by  any  one  in  less  authority  than  one  of  the 
principals  of  the  firm,  or  by  the  manager  himself.  So  heavy  a 
penalty  as  the  dismissal  of  a  workman  (involving  to  him  a  seri- 
ous dislocation  of  his  life,  the  perils  and  demoralization  atten- 
dant on  looking  for  work,  probably  the  uprooting  of  his  home 
and  the  interruption  of  his  children's  schooling,  possibly  many 
weeks  of  penury  or  semi-starvation  for  his  family  and  himself) 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  very  serious  matter.  No  man  ought 
to  be  dismissed  by  reason  of  anything  personal  to  himself,  ex- 
cept after  a  formal  enquiry,  and  for  a  definite  cause,  against 
which  he  must  be  allowed  an  opportunity  for  explanation  or 
defence.  No  foreman  or  subordinate  manager  ought  to  be  al- 
lowed to  exercise  the  power  of  dismissal.  There  must,  of 
course,  be  power  of  instant  suspension  and  report,  to  be  con- 
firmed or  not,  after  formal  enquiry,  by  the  manager  or  part- 
ner to  whom  this  important  duty  is  specially  assigned. 

In  some  establishments,  where  the  owners  attempt  to  be  hu- 
mane, it  is  sought  to  protect  the  workmen  against  injustice  by 
letting  it  be  known  that  they  have  full  rights  of  appeal  to  the 
management,  or  to  the  individual  partners,  against  any  dis- 
missal or  disciplinary  punishment  by  a  foreman  or  assistant 
manager.  This  is  kindly  meant,  but  it  is  not  effective,  and  it 
leads  to  difficulties.  Discipline,  and  the  foreman's  authority, 
must  be  maintained.  Once  a  foreman  has  pronounced  sentence, 
even  the  most  just  and  most  human  employer  finds  great  diffi- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        249 

culty  in  throwing  him  over.  The  workman,  by  appealing  may 
show  that  he  was  not  himself  to  blame,  and  that  the  foreman 
was  hasty  or  ill-tempered,  or  even  prejudiced;  but  what  is  the 
employer  to  do?  To  let  the  man  win  his  appeal,  to  pronounce 
to  the  whole  workshop  that  the  foreman  was  wrong — in  short, 
to  do  justice — seems  to  involve  the  permanent  weakening  of  the 
foreman's  authority,  the  discouragement  of  his  efforts  to  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  the  concern,  friction  in  the  shop,  and  the 
destruction  of  discipline.  What  happens,  I  fear,  is  that,  except 
in  exceptionally  glaring  cases,  the  case  is  regarded  as  an  in- 
extricable tangle,  the  foreman  is  given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
and  the  sentence  of  dismissal  is  confirmed.  If  the  workman  is 
meritorious,  and  the  employer  is  kind,  an  effort  may  be  made 
to  find  him  a  place  elsewhere ;  and  the  foreman  is  privately 
warned  not  to  do  it  again.  But  the  foreman's  authority  Is  al- 
most invariably  upheld. 

This  shows  that  subsequent  appeal  against  the  foreman's 
sentence  is  not  the  right  device.  What  is  required  is  some- 
thing like  the  procedure  adopted  in  some  other  enterprises,  which 
we  may  call  that  of  prior  confirmation  of  any  sentence  of  dis- 
missal before  it  is  promulgated.  There  ought,  it  is  clear,  to 
be  a  very  definite  code  of  procedure  as  to  dismissals.  A  fore- 
man may  summarily  suspend  a  workman,  or  he  may  warn  him ; 
but  the  foreman  must  not  go  beyond  this  under  any  circum- 
stances whatsoever  until  he  has  submitted  the  case  privately  to 
the  manager,  who  goes  into  it  as  he  thinks  fit,  probably  sum- 
moning the  workman  before  him.  The  essential  thing  is  that 
whatever  decision  is  arrived  at  is  announced  by  the  foreman 
as  his  own.  He  is  thus,  in  the  eyes  of  the  workshop,  never 
overruled. 

Even  when  workmen  have  to  be  put  off  from  slackness  of 
business  (a  slackness  resulting  from  the  failure,  be  it  remem- 
bered, not  of  the  workmen  but  of  the  management;  it  may  be 
an  unavoidable  failure,  but  it  is  to  be  regarded  nevertheless  as 
a  failure  to  secure  the  first  requisite  of  maximum  efficiency, 
namely  continuity  of  running)  the  matter  ought  not  to  be  lightly 
treated.  Prior  notice  should  be  given  to  the  Employment  Ex- 
change of  any  projected  reduction  of  staff.  The  longest  pos- 
sible notice  ought  to  be  given  to  the  workmen  about  to  be  put 
off ;  attempts  should  be  made  to  find  them  employment  in  other 
departments;  and  if  these  fail,  the  very  least  consideration  to 


250  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

be  shown  is  a  clear  week's  notice  (or  a  week's  pay  in  lieu  of 
notice.)  Depend  upon  it,  the  manager  who  neglects  this  sort 
of  consideration,  perhaps  thinks  himself  clever  in  turning  oil 
"hands"  with  as  little  expense  or  trouble  to  the  firm  as  lurniag 
off  the  gas,  does  not  know  his  business.  He  may  think  he  does 
very  well,  but  (such  is  the  human  nature  which  he  has  to 
handle)  he  will  inevitably  fail  either  to  maximise  output  or  to 
minimise  cost.  This  is  coming  to  be  increasingly  recognized  in 
the  United  States. 


HOW  TO  FIGURE  THE  LABOR 
TURNOVER 

COMPUTING  LABOR  TURNOVER ' 

A   Questionnaire 

At  the  request  of  Mr.  Daniel  Bloomfield,  and  with  his  as- 
sistance, Industrial  Management  prepared  and  sent  to  a  num- 
ber of  employment  managers  in  prominent  industrial  plants  a 
questionnaire  aimed  to  bring  out  helpful  information  in  regard 
to  labor  turnover.     The  questions  are  as  follows : 

1.  How  do  you  define  "labor  turnover"? 

2.  How  do  you  compute  labor  turnover 

(a)  when  trying  to  maintain  a  normal   force? 

(b)  when  increasing  your  force? 

(c)  when   there   is   a   loss   of   workers     bringing  the 
force  below  normal? 

3.  When  computing  the  turnover  for  a  particular  month 
how  much  stress  do  you  lay 

(a)  on  the  daily  average  of  persons  at  work? 

(b)  on  the  monthly  average? 

(c)  How  do  you  obtain  your  daily  average  and  your 
monthy  average? 

4.  Explain  any  other  method  or  methods  of  computing 
turnover  known  to  you,  as  the  cumulative  average. 

5.  State  the  formula  best  suited,  in  your  opinion,  to  give  an 
accurate  diagnosis  of  the  labor  turnover  condition. 

By  Daniel  Bloomfield 

I.  Definition.  Labor  turnover  is  the  condition  in  industry 
represented  by  the  engagement,  loss  and  replacement  of  workers. 
It  represents  the  leakage  or  waste  of  man  power  and  is  a  fair 
index  of  the  efficiency  of  management  methods  and  conditions 
of  employment. 

1  From   Industrial   Management.     s6;239-46.     September,    1918. 


252  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

2.  Method  of  Computation. 
Let  T^turnover 

^:=average  number  employed  for  period  computed 

L=loss 

M=transfers  from  department  to  department 

(/=:unavoidable   losses 

L~(M-\-U) 
Then     — —T  (l) 

When  increasing  the  force,  subtract  the  increase  from  the 
number  hired  during  the  period.  This  will  give  the  amount  of 
loss  or  value  of  L.     Then  use  formula   (i). 

When  decreasing  the  force,  add  the  number  represented  by 
the  decrease  to  the  number  hired  during  the  period  to  obtain 
the  number  leaving  or  value  of  L.     Then  use  formula  (i). 

3.  In  computing  the  turnover  for  a  particular  month  the 
greatest  stress  should  be  laid  on  the  daily  average.  The  most 
accurate  method  of  obtaining  this  is  to  add  the  figures  on  the 
payroll  for  each  day  and  divide  the  result  by  the  number  of 
working  days.  Where  this  is  found  to  be  a  difficult  matter  the 
figures  on  the  payroll  at  the  end  of  each  week  should  be  added 
up  and  the  result  divided  by  4. 

4.  Some  employment  managers  do  not  consider  unavoid- 
able losses  (death,  illness,  old  age,  etc.)  as  a  part  of  their  turn- 
over and  so  deduct  that  from  the  number  representing  the  loss. 
Their  formula  is  the  same  as  No  i : 

A =^  ^"^ 

Still  others  use  the  following  formula :  They  first  obtain  a 
monthly  average  by  adding  the  number  on  the  payroll  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  month  and  the  number  at  the  end  of  the  month 
and  dividing  the  result  by  2.  This  average  is  then  divided  into 
the  number  replaced  on  the  payroll. 

5.  The  best  formula,  in  my  opinion,  designed  to  diagnose 
the  labor  turnover  situation  of  a  plant  accurately,  is  the  fol- 
lowing : 

~=T  (2) 


A 

This  formula  allows  for  the  elimination  of  the  unavoidable 
elements   from   the  final  figures.    Transfers   are   also   deducted 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        253 

because  they  really  do  not  represent  a  true  loss  o£  man  power. 
Of  course,  one  can  go  into  fine  hair  splitting  about  transfers 
and  separate  promotions  and  shifting  from  one  department  to 
another  but  such  attempts  are  only  of  academic  value.  What 
the  employer  desires  to  know  is,  "What  is  the  preventable  turn- 
over?"    Knowing  this  he  can  plan  to  remedy  the  condition. 

The  formula  to  be  used  in  obtaining  the  percentage  of  turn- 
over of  a  single  department  would  be : 

^r  (3) 

A 

A  transfer  from  one  department  to  another  is  really  an  exit 
from  the  former  and  an  entrance  to  the  latter,  hence  transfers 
here  should  not  be  deducted. 

By  E.  H.  Fish 

The  matter  below  was  prepared  for  the  Employment  Man- 
agers' Association  of  Boston: 

Labor  turnover  is  the  percentage  of  employees  which  it  is 
necessary  to  replace  over  a  period  of  one  year's  time.  For 
example,  a  shop  which  maintains  steadily  1000  employees  through- 
out the  year,  but  finds  it  necessary  to  hire  650  new  men,  losing 
an  equal  number,  will  have  a  labor  turnover  of  65  per  cent,  pro- 
vided none  of  the  losses  were  unavoidable. 

Consider  a  shop  which  is  growing  in  size ;  for  example,  one 
which  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  has  1000  men,  but  at  the  end 
of  the  year  has  1500,  the  increase  having  been  steady  through- 
out the  year  so  that  the  average  number  of  employees  is  1250. 
If  in  order  to  increase  from  1000  to  1500  it  was  necessary  to 
employ  looo  new  men,  then  only  500  men  would  have  been  re- 
placed, the  rest  having  gone  to  increase  the  force.  In  that  case 
the  labor  turnover  would  be  500  divided  by  1250  or  40  per  cent. 

If  the  shop  is  decreasing  in  size,  that  is,  if  the  same  shop 
begins  with  1000  men  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  has  only  800, 
but  while  losing  200  men  hired  a  total  of  loo,  then  it  would  have 
replaced  only  100  men.  The  average  payroll  is  900,  so  the  per- 
centage of  labor  turnover  would  be  100  divided  by  900,  or  11  1/9 
per  cent. 

In  each  of  these  examples  no  account  has  been  taken  of  the 
replacement  of  men  who  left  through  no  fault  of  the  company 
as,   for  example,  death.    It  is  also  customary  to  leave  out  of 


254  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

consideration  in  figuring  labor  turnover,  women  who  leave  when 
they  are  married,  as  we  consider  that  also  beyond  the  range  of 
our  influence.  We  also  leave  out  of  account  all  transfers  from 
one  department  to  another  when  wc  arc  figuring  the  labor  turn- 
over for  the  whole  shop.  In  figuring  the  labor  turnover  for 
separate  departments,  of  course,  these  transfers  should  be  treated 
exactly  as  if  they  were  discharges  from  one  department  and 
newly  hired  in  the  other. 

It  is  the  custom  to  use  for  the  average  number  of  em- 
ployees the  average  of  the  number  on  the  payroll  at  the  begin- 
ning of  each  month  or  each  week  of  the  year.  This  is  not  ac- 
curate but  it  is  probably  as  accurate  as  is  necessary,  the  labor 
turnover  in  any  shop  being  an  indication  of  conditions  rather 
than  an  exact  measure. 

When  labor  turnover  is  computed  from  week  to  week  or 
from  month  to  month  it  is  customary  to  multiply  the  number 
of  employees  hired  and  those  leaving  by  52  or  12  as  the  case  may 
be,  so  as  to  get  the  same  result  as  if  the  whole  year  were  taken 
into  account. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  compute  labor  turnover  on  the 
basis  of  the  number  of  employees  on  the  payroll,  although  to 
be  more  strictly  correct  it  should  be  figured  on  the  average  num- 
ber working,  reduced  to  a  full  working  week's  basis.  For  ex- 
ample, if  the  average  employee  works  50  hours  per  week  when 
the  shop  time  is  60,  then  only  five-sixths  as  many  men  are  ef- 
fectively engaged  in  work  as  are  shown  on  the  payroll. 

The  following  formula  is  used  for  computation  of  labor 
turnover : 

Let  7":=labor  turnover  per  year 

L:=losses,  or  number  of  men  replaced  per  year 
M=J^    (number  of  men  working  at  beginning  of  period 
-\-  number  working  at  end  of  the  period). 

M 
Then  7=    — 

The  number  of  men  replaced  per  year  should  not  include 
those  who  die  or  who  leave  on  account  of  marriage,  nor 
should  it  take  into  account  transfers  between  departments 
unless  a  departmental  turnover  is  being  considered. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  255 


Examples 

Week  ending  February  16,  1918 

Hired    29 

Transferred    in 10 

Left  on  own  accord 34 

Discharged    5 

Laid  off  (lack  of  work) 7 

Died    I 

Transferred   out 10 

Number  on  payroll  February  9 2701 

Number  on  payroll  February  10 2683 

To  find  turnover  for  shop  as  a  whole : 

Total  leaving  less  transfers  and  death. ...  46 

Total   hired 29 

Since  only  29  men  were  hired  only  that  number  were  re- 
placed, therefore,  the  numerator  of  our  fraction  should  be 
29  times  52.     The  average  number  on  the  payroll  is 

2701  +  2683 
2 
29  X  52  1508 

or = =  56  per  cent. 

2701  +  2683        2892 
2 

Another  example  is  for  the  case  when  the  force  is  in- 
creasing. 

Week  ending  February  23,   1918 

Hired    63 

Transferred  in 12 

Left  of  own  accord 22 

Discharged    4 

Laid    off 3 

Married    (female) 2 

Transferred   out 12 

Number  on  payroll  February  16 2683 

Number  on  payroll  February  23 2715 

In  this  case  while  63  were  hired,  32  of  them  were  to  in- 


256  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

crease  force  and  only  31  to  replace  others.    Two  left  for  un- 
avoidable reasons,  therefore,  our  fraction  is: 
(31—2)52        1508 

= =  54  per  cent. 

2683  +  2715       2749 
2 
Departmental  turnover  is  computed  as  follows: 
Week  ending  February  23,  1918 

Hired  from  Department  No.  i 20 

Transferred  in  from  other  departments..  3 

23 

Left  on  own  accord 6 

Transferred  out  of  department 2 

Discharged    2 

10 

Number  in  department  February  23 402 

Number  in  department  February  16 389 

In  this  case  23  came  in,  13  to  increase  force,  10  to  replace 
others,  therefore,  this  is  figured: 

10  X  52 

; — - —  =  131  per  cent. 

402  +  389 

2 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  an  average  of  the  labor 
turnover  taken  niontlily  or  weekly  is  not  a  true  average,  as 
the  turnover  when  the  shop  is  growing  if  considered  positive 
would  make  the  turnover  when  the  shop  was  decreasing  in 
size  negative. 

STANDARD   DEFINITION   OF  LABOR  TURN- 
OVER AND  METHOD  OF  COMPUTING 
THE  PERCENTAGE' 

Labor  turnover  for  any  period  consists  of  the  number  of 
separations  from  service  during  that  period.  Separations  include 
all  quits,  discharges,  and  lay  ofifs  for  any  reason  whatsoever. 

The  percentage  of  labor  turnover  for  any  period  considered 

1  From  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Mo.  Rev.  Vol  6,  No.  6, 
p.   172-3.     June,  1918. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        257 

is  the  ratio  of  the  total  number  of  separations  during  the  period 
to  the  average  number  of  employees  on  the  force  report  during 
that  period.  The  force  report  gives  the  number  of  men  actually 
working  each  day  as  shown  by  attendance  records. 

It  is  recommended  that  the  percentage  turnover  be  computed 
for  each  week.  All  turnover  percentages  for  a  week  or  for  any 
other  period  should  always  be  reduced  to  a  yearly  basis  and  be 
reported  in  terms  of  percentages  per  annum. 

To  compute  the  percentage  of  labor  turnover  for  any  period, 
find  the  total  separations  for  the  period  considered  and  divide 
by  the  average  of  the  number  actually  working  each  day 
throughout  the  period.  Then  multiply  by  the  proper  factor  to 
reduce  to  a  yearly  basis. 

Example : 

Method  of  Computing  Percentage  of  Labor  Turnover  for  One   Week 

Total  number  of  separations  during  week 300 

Daily  force  reports   (workers  actually  on  the  job): 

Monday    1,020      Wednesday    1,070      Friday    1,040 

Tuesday     1,065      Thursday     1,035      Saturday    990 

Average    for    week 1,037 

300 

Percentage   labor   turnover, X52=  1,504  per   cent. 

1,037 
Method  of  Computing  Percentage  of  Labor  Turnover  for  One   Year 
(Assuming  that  records  of  daily  attendance  are  averaged  for  each  month.) 

Total  number  of  separations  during  the  year 5.020 

Average    for   year 2,176 

May     2,040      September     2,200     January    2,250 

June     2,100      October     2,220     February    2,170 

fuly    2,000      November    2,280     March    2,230 

August     1,980      December    2,240     April    2,400 

Average  number  working  each  month  as  determined  from  the  force  re- 
ports or  daily  attendance  records: 

5,020 

Percentage  labor  turnover, =231  per  cent. 

2,176 

In  case  the  number  employed  by  a  plant  or  a  department  of 

a  plant  decreases  because  it  is  the  deliberate  policy  of  the  plant 

management  to  reduce  permanently  its  working  force,  this  fact 

should  be  explicitly  stated  and  the  reasons  for  the  reduction  in 

force  given. 


THE  COST  OF  LABOR  TURNOVER 

THE  COST  OF  LABOR  TURNOVER' 

"Mr.  Employer,"  I  said  some  four  years  ago  to  a  man  who 
told  me  that  he  was  then  giving  employment  to  approximately 
6,700  people,  or  to  about  800  more  than  he  had  employed  at  the 
same  time  in  the  previous  year,  "I  would  like  to  know  how 
many  people  you  had  to  engage  to  bring  about  the  increase  in 
your  force."  He  looked  somewhat  blankly  at  me,  admitted  that 
he  did  not  know,  but  thought  that  he  had  surely  engaged  many 
more  persons  than  actually  was  necessary.  Upon  being  pressed 
for  at  least  an  approximate  guess,  he  ventured  to  say  that  he 
might  have  engaged  fully  2,000  persons  in  order  to  increase  his 
working  force  by  about  800.  He  was  nonplused  when  later  on 
he  ascertained  the  actual  figures. 

"Mr  Employer,"  I  asked  another  man  who  was  at  the  head  of 
one  of  the  most  efificiently  managed  factories  in  the  United 
States,  who  had  for  years  maintained  an  almost  steady  force  of 
between  900  and  1,000  employees  and  who,  as  a  matter  of  fact 
employed  at  the  time  of  my  inquiry  some  50  persons  less  than  a 
year  before,  "How  many  persons  did  you  engage  to  practically 
maintain  your  working  force?"  "Oh,  I  don't  know,"  he  said, 
"but  it  seems  a  darn  shame  that,  whereas  I  reduced  rather  than 
increased  my  force,  I  had  to  keep  an  employment  man  and  an 
assistant  busy  interviewing,  hiring,  and  firing  people."  When  he 
looked  into  the  actual  status  of  affairs  he  also  was  mortified  to 
learn  the  real  conditions. 

"Mr.  Employer,"  I  asked  several  managers  of  other  factories, 
"how  many  did  you  pass  in  and  out  of  your  employment  during 
the  last  year  in  which  you  effected  a  substantial  increase  in  your 
working  force?"  Each  of  them  knew  that  he  had  engaged  large 
numbers,  too  large  each  one  thought,  but  when  I  asked  for  ap- 
proximately correct  figures,  and  particularly  when  I  asked  them 
to  express  in  dollars  and  cents  the  economic  waste  involved  in 

1  By  Magnus  Alexander.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  227. 
p.   13-27.     October,   1917. 


26o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

the  transactions,  each  could  only  vaguely  state  that  there  must 
have  been  a  very  large  sum  of  money  thrown  away. 

And  so  I  went  to  many  other  employers  in  various  sections 
of  the  country,  making  the  same  inquiry,  but  getting  the  same 
indefinite  answer.  These  industrial  managers  had  not  focused 
their  minds  on  the  problem.  They  instinctively  felt  that  there 
had  been  au  unnecessary  economic  waste  but  evidently  did  not 
realize  its  real  extent  and  nature. 

This  experience  led  me  in  1913  to  begin  a  study  of  the  prob- 
lem of  "hiring  and  firing."  My  inquiry  sought  to  find  and 
analyze  the  factors  that  enter  into  the  problem  in  order  that  I 
might  offer  practical  suggestions  for  remedial  action.  To  this 
end  I  secured  pertinent  data  from  managers  of  large,  medium- 
sized,  and  small  establishments.  I  confined  myself  to  inquiries 
in  the  metal  industry,  with  which  I  was  more  familiar,  and  be- 
cause I  had  personal  acquaintance  with  managers  in  this  branch 
of  industry  from  whom  I  could  secure  confidential  data  on  a 
comparable  basis.  I  requested  employment  statistics  for  the  year 
1912  because  it  was  the  last  industrially  normal  year;  during  1913 
a  business  depression  set  in  which  became  accentuated  during 
the  early  part  of  1914  but  later  gave  way  to  a  period  of  great 
prosperity,  from  which  we  have  been  suffering,  industrially 
speaking,  for  over  two  years  and  from  which  there  may  be  a 
rude  awakening  when  this  war  shall  have  reached  its  end.  While 
it  may  seem  like  going  back  a  long  distance  to  speak  at  this 
time  of  the  conditions  in  the  year  1912,  I  am  sure  that  the  story 
of  1922  will  duplicate  the  story  of  1912  unless  we  read  the  les- 
son of  the  latter  aright. 

During  a  study  trip  to  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1913,  an  op- 
portunity offered  itself  to  secure  first-hand  information  on  the 
same  subject  in  English,  French,  German,  and  Austrian  fac- 
tories. One  would  certainly  expect  to  find  in  these  older  coun- 
tries of  more  or  less  settled  industrial  conditions  greater  stability 
of  employment  than  in  the  newer  United  States  of  America, 
where  industrial  conditions  are  constantly  in  a  flux  of  legisla- 
tive, social,  and  economic  readjustment.  Contrary  to  expectation, 
however,  I  found  in  prominent  European  factories  a  condition 
indicating  as  great  an  economic  waste  in  hiring  and  firing  em- 
ployees as  seemed  to  prevail  in  American  industrial  establish- 
ments of  comparable  size  and  character. 

In  presenting  to  you  some  pertinent  aspects  of  the  problem  I 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        261 

will  not  trouble  you  with  all  the  details  of  the  investigation, 
except  to  indicate  with  sufficient  clearness  the  method  employed 
in  the  study  of  the  problem,  as  a  guide  to  those  who  may  want 
to  make  similar  investigations  in  their  own  plants,  and  as  a  basis 
for  checking  the  accuracy  of  my  conclusions.  I  shall  not  dis- 
close the  sources  of  the  information  herewith  presented,  because 
all  information  was  given  in  confidence  to  be  reported  only  in 
the  aggregate.  I  also  wish  to  say  at  the  outset  that  I  have  in- 
troduced mathematical  short  cuts  into  the  calculations  on  the 
ground  that,  after  all,  we  are  concerned  with  the  tendencies 
and  general  character  of  the  employment  situation,  and  not  with 
exact  numerical  values  in  any  particular  situation  at  a  particular 
time.  The  exact  situation  would  not  be  duplicated  in  any  other 
set  of  factories  and  would  not  even  occur  in  the  same  factories 
at  any  other  period.  This  obviates  the  necessity  of  tracing  the 
daily  change  in  the  labor  force  and  simplifies  the  mathematics  of 
the  investigation. 

From  the  factories  under  investigation  I  have  selected  for 
presentation  a  group  of  12  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  repre- 
sentative by  reason  of  their  size  and  character.  These  factories 
were  located  in  six  different  states  in  the  eastern  and  middle 
western  sections  of  the  country;  some  employed  only  men,  others 
employed  men  as  well  as  women.  Some  were  engaged  in  manu- 
facture of  heavy  apparatus,  such  as  big  steam  engines  and  elec- 
trical apparatus;  some  produced  medium-sized  apparatus,  such 
as  machine  tools  and  automobiles;  while  the  chief  products  of 
others  were  small,  such  as  measuring  instruments  and  incan- 
descent lamps.  The  largest  of  these  factories  had  more  than 
10,000  employees  on  its  pay  roll,  while  the  smallest  employed 
regularly  less  than  300  persons.  The  composite  picture  repre- 
sented by  these  12  factories  reflects,  therefore,  average  industrial 
conditions.  Moreover,  there  was  nothing  unusual  in  respect  to 
efSciency  of  management,  availability  of  labor,  rate  of  wages,  or 
controlling  legislative  considerations. 

It  would  have  been  an  easy  task  to  select  only  factories  in 
which  employment  conditions  were  essentially  bad  and,  by  group- 
ing these,  to  present  a  very  somber  picture*.  In  following  this 
policy,  however,  I  would  no  doubt  have  failed  of  my  purpose  in 
interesting  employers  in  the  economic  side  of  the  employment 
problem,  for  they  would  have  been  diverted  from,  rather  than 
attracted  to,  a  study  of  the  situation  that  by  the  very  nature  of 


262  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

its  extremeness  depicted  an  unusual  condition.  It  is  by  such 
presentation  of  true  but  unusual  conditions,  and  by  generaliza- 
tion based  thereon,  that  well-intentioned  academicians  in  the 
field  of  industrial  economics,  social  workers,  as  well  as  profes- 
sional muckrakers,  usually  fail  to  accomplish  sought-for  im- 
provements. They  arouse  temporary  attention  by  their  sensa- 
tional statements,  but  do  not  clinch  the  interest  of  responsible 
persons. 

The  information  gathered  in  the  12  factories  and  herein  given 
in  the  aggregate  shows  the  number  of  employees  on  the  pay  roll 
at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  1912,  the  number 
engaged  and  discharged  during  the  3'ear,  week  by  week,  and  the 
number  of  reengaged  persons  who  had  worked  in  the  same 
factory  on  one  or  several  occasions.  The  latter  item  was  secured 
on  the  assumption  that  it  would  usually  be  less  expensive  to  hire 
a  previous  employee  than  to  bring  in  and  train  an  entirely  new 
one.  This  segregation  showed  that  72.8  per  cent  of  all  people 
engaged  during  the  year  1912  were  entirely  new  to  the  factories 
for  which  they  were  hired,  and  that  27.2  per  cent  had  worked 
in  these  places  once  or  several  times  before.  In  a  general  way 
this  ratio  of  four  new  employees  to  one  rehired  will  be  found 
to  hold  good,  at  least  in  metal-working  industries. 

In  the  group  of  12  factories  under  investigation  there  were 
37,274  persons  emploj'ed  at  the  beginning,  43,971  at  the  end  of 
1912,  or  40,622  on  the  average.  The  net  increase  was  6,697  per- 
sons, since  during  the  year  42,571  persons  had  been  hired,  and 
35,874  had  dropped  out  of  the  employment. 

In  other  words,  about  six  and  one-third  times  as  many  people 
had  to  be  engaged  during  the  year  as  constituted  the  .permanent 
increase  of  the  force  at  the  end  of  that  period. 

Several  reasons  might  be  given  in  explanation  of  this  condi- 
tion. Peculiar  local  labor  conditions,  the  completion  of  a  tem- 
porary piece  of  work  such  as  the  building  of  a  structure,  or 
imusual  conditions  of  employment  on  account  of  a  high  fluctuat- 
ing production,  might  have  influenced  the  labor  situation. 

The  important  fact,  however,  stands  out  that  42,571  people 
had  to  be  engaged  during  the  year  in  order  to  increase  the  work- 
ing force  by  only  6,697. 

Theoretically  only  as  many  people  ought  to  have  been  hired 
as  were  needed  permanently  to  increase  the  force.  Practically, 
certain  allowances  must  be  made  in  order  to  view  the  problem 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  263 

ill  its  correct  light.  These  allowances  must  cover:  (a)  The  re- 
placement of  employees  who  die;  (b)  the  replacement  of  em- 
ployees on  prolonged  sick  leave  for  whom  others  must  be  sub- 
stituted temporarily  or  permanently;  (c)  the  replacement  of  em- 
ployees who,  although  selected  with  good  judgment,  are  found 
to  be  unsuited  to  the  work,  or  who  leave  of  their  own  accord 
for  one  of  many  reasons;  (d)  the  engagement  of  extra  em- 
ployees required  for  short  periods,  on  account  of  temporary 
work  or  high  peaks  of  a  fluctuating  production;  and  (e)  the  fact 
that  no  employment  department  can  be  run  on  a  100  per  cent 
efficiency  basis. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  annuallj^  among  all  employees,  i  per 
cent  die ;  4  per  cent  are  sick  for  sufficiently  long  periods  to 
necessitate  their  replacement  temporarily  or  permanently;  8  per 
cent  withdraw  from  service  for  unforeseen  or  unavoidable  rea- 
sons, or  are  discharged  for  justifiable  causes;  8  per  cent  are 
temporarily  needed  on  account  of  normal  fluctuation  of  produc- 
tion; and  80  per  cent  constitute  a  readily  attainable  efficiency  of 
an  employment  department. 

These  figures  can  be  supported  by  the  following  considera- 
tions : 

The  average  age  of  employees  in  the  factories  under  consid- 
eration was  found  to  be  3il4  years  for  male  and  23  years  for 
female  employees.  For  these  ages  mortality  tables  place  the 
death  rate  of  male  employees  at  8.5  and  of  female  employees  7.95 
in  each  thousand.  On  the  other  hand,  the  experience  of  several 
mutual-benefit  associations  in  factories,  some  extending  over  a 
period  of  ten  years,  revealed  that  about  7  in  every  thousand 
members  had  died  annually.  These  statistics,  therefore,  justify 
the  assumption  that  death  removes  annually  not  more  than  i 
per  cent  of  factory  employees. 

Ascertainment  of  the  annual  rate  of  absent  persons  who  are 
incapacitated  for  work  for  definite  periods  by  sickness  is  not  so 
easy  a  task.  Reliable,  comprehensive  data  are  not  readily  avail- 
able in  this  country,  and  the  extensive  experience  of  Germany 
must  be  taken  with  due  allowance  when  applied  to  American 
conditions.  Recognizing,  however,  the  prevailing  custom  in 
many  factories  not  to  replace,  even  temporarily,  employees  whose 
incapacity  does  not  extend  beyond  two  weeks,  provided  the  fact 
of  their  sickness  is  known  to  the  management,  and  relying  in 
part  on  available  statistics  and  in  part  on  the  judgment  of  indus- 


264  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

trial  managers,  an  assumption  that  four  in  every  hundred  work- 
people are  incapacitated  for  more  than  two  consecutive  weeks 
in  a  year,  and  must  be  temporarily  or  permanently  replaced, 
would  liberally   reflect  actual  conditions. 

As  to  the  number  of  people  who  are  annually  separated  from 
the  service  for  reasons  other  than  that  of  death  or  prolonged 
sickness,  no  reliable  figures  seem  to  be  available.  According  to 
the  United  States  Civil  Service  Commission,  however,  8  per 
cent  of  all  Government  employees  are  separated  from  the  service 
annually  for  various  reasons,  including  death  and  sickness.  With 
due  allowance  for  the  difference  in  employment  conditions  in 
Government  and  in  private  service,  the  former  being  more 
favorable  to  stability  in  service  than  the  latter,  it  may  be  fairly 
assumed  that  8  per  cent  of  private  employees  are  separated  an- 
nually from  the  service  by  voluntary  or  involuntary  resignation, 
except  on  account  of  death  or  sickness,  or  as  much  as  in  the 
Government  service  for  all  causes. 

Another  difficulty  arises  when  estimating  the  effect  which  a 
normally  fluctuating  production  should  have  on  the  required 
number  of  employees.  Opinions  in  this  respect  differ  widely, 
and  there  is  a  very  marked  difference  between  the  fluctuations  of 
employment  from  this  source  in  various  industries  and  even  in 
various  establishments  in  the  same  industry.  The  conviction  is 
making  itself  felt  among  employers  that  in  most  businesses  the 
prevalent  erratic  curve  of  production  can  be  turned  into  a  more 
even  wave  line.  Interesting  evidences  are  at  hand  to  show  the 
wholesome  effect  of  well-directed  effort  in  this  field.  It  must 
not  be  overlooked  in  this  connection  that  fluctuations  in  produc- 
tive requirements  will  have  different  effect  on  the  various  classes 
of  employees.  Highly  skilled  mechanics  and  clerks  will  usually 
feel  the  effect  last,  and  then  to  a  smaller  degree  than  the  great 
body  of  operatives  who  have  no  special  skill  or  knowledge.  The 
opinion  of  many  men  who  were  consulted  seems  to  center 
around  the  assumption  that  an  annual  temporary  engagement  of 
about  8  per  cent  of  the  total  working  force  will  be  necessary  to 
allow  for  normal  fluctuations  of  production. 

Finally,  in  regard  to  the  efficiency  of  an  employment  depart- 
ment, it  should  not  be  difficult  to  attain  an  efficiency  of  at  least 
8o  per  cent  in  this  highly  specialized  branch  of  service,  with  but 
a  very  limited  staff. 

Applying  these  factors  to  the  problem  in  hand,  it  follows  that 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        265 

while  theoretically  only  6,697  persons  should  have  been  employed 
during  the  year  to  allow  for  the  increase  of  the  working  force 
by  that  number  in  the  factories  under  consideration,  the  addi- 
tional engagement  of  13,843  persons,  or  a  total  engagement  of 
20,540  persons,  could  be  justified. 

Yet  the  statistics  show  that  42,571  persons  were  engaged  dur- 
ing the  year,  whereas  the  engagement  of  only  20,540  could  be 
defended  on  even  liberal  grounds.  Therefore  it  is  evident  that 
22,031  persons  were  hired  above  the  apparently  necessary  re- 
quirements. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  considerable  sum  of  money  must  have 
been  wasted  in  the  12  factories  by  unnecessarily  hiring  so  large  a 
force  of  men  and  women  as  has  been  shown.  In  order  to  make 
this  picture  more  lucid,  let  us  give  monetary  values  to  the  figures 
here  presented. 

What  does  it  cost  to  "hire  and  fire"  an  employee? 

No  reliable  investigation  of  this  cost  item  seems  to  have  been 
made,  and  the  opinions  of  industrial  managers  differ  widely. 
One  of  many  managers  consulted  placed  the  figure  at  $30,  all 
others  suggested  from  $50  to  $200  as  the  cost  per  employee.  The 
great  difference  in  the  estimates  is  explainable  on  the  ground 
that  these  managers  represented  a  great  variety  of  industries ; 
the  fact  that  they  had  not  heretofore  given  this  matter  careful 
thought  accounts  also  for  the  variety  of  their  opinions. 

One  machine-tool  builder  estimated  a  cost  of  $150  per  em- 
ployee; the  president  of  a  large  automobile  manufacturing  con- 
cern placed  the  figure  at  $100,  while  another  manufacturer  who 
employs  much  female  labor  maintained  that  the  cost  of  hiring 
and  firing  an  employee  would  run  as  high  as  $200  in  some  de- 
partments. 

Unquestionably,  the  skill,  experience,  and  intelligence  of  a 
new  employee  have  much  bearing  upon  the  amount  of  money 
necessary  for  his  training.  Another  important  consideration  is 
whether  the  new  employee  is  working  on  expensive  or  low-priced 
machinery  or  with  high-  or  low-priced  tools,  or  an  expensive  or 
cheap  materials ;  and  to  a  certain  extent  whether  or  not  he  has 
heretofore  been  employed  in  the  same  shop  and  particularly  on 
the  same  class  of  work. 

With  this  thought  in  mind  I  subdivided  the  employees  under 
investigation  into  five  groups  and  studied  the  requirements  of 
each  group  as  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  required  instruction 


266  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

for  new  employees  and  the  effect  of  the  work  of  new  employees 
upon  the  economical  conduct  of  the  business.    The  division  was: 

Group  A. — Highly  skilled  mechanics  who  must  have  prac- 
ticed their  trade  for  a  number  of  years  in  order  to  attain  the 
required  degree  of   all-round  experience  and  proficiency. 

Group  B. — Mechanics  of  lesser  skill  and  experience  who  could 
have  acquired  an  average  degree  of  proficiency  within  a  year  or 
two. 

Group  C. — The  large  number  of  operatives  usually  known  as 
pieceworkers  who,  without  any  previous  skill  or  experience  in  the 
particular  work,  can  attain  fair  efficiency  within  a  few  months, 
somewhat  depending  on  the  character  of  the  work. 

Group  D. — Unskilled  productive  and  expense  laborers  who 
can  readily  be  replaced  in  the  course  of  a  few  days. 

Group  E. — The  clerical  force  in  the  shops  and  offices. 

The  distribution  of  the  employees  in  these  five  groups  was 
found  to  be  as  follows,  assuming  that  Tz  pcr  cent  in  each  group 
were  newly  hired  and  27  per  cent  were  rehired  employees: 


INITIAL   NUMBER   OF   EMPLOYEES,   INCREASE   IN   FORCE,   AND 

NUMBER  OF  NEW  AND  REHIRED  EMPLOYEES,  IN   12 

FACTORIES,   IN    1912,   BY   CLASSES   OF   SKILL. 

Number  of  employees.     Number  of  engagements. 
Group.  _  New  Rehired 

A  

B  

C  

D  

E  

Total 37,274  6,697  30.991  11,580  42,571 

As  to  the  number  in  each  group  of  apparently  unnecessarily 
hired  employees,  allowances  would  have  to  be  made  for  the 
fact  that  while  the  same  mortality  and  sickness  rate  and  the 
same  employment  efficiency  could  be  considered  to  hold  in  all 
groups,  the  rates  of  withdrawal  by  resignation  and  discharge 
and  the  effect  of  a  normally  fluctuating  production  would  vary 
for  each  group.  On  the  one  hand,  skilled  employees  are  usually 
more  steady  and  will  give  less  cause  for  discharge  than  ordinary 
pieceworkers  or  expense  laborers ;  on  the  other  hand,  all-round 
mechanics  will  be  retained  under  normally  fluctuating  produc- 
tion, while  pieceworkers  and  expense  laborers  will  more  or  less 
immediately  feel  the  effect  of  such  fluctuations. 


Initial. 

Increase. 

employees. 

employees. 

Total. 

3,355 

626 

3,393 

1,268 

4,661 

4,473 

814 

4,583 

1,713 

6,296 

12,673 

2,327 

10,512 

3,928 

14,440 

13,046 

2,369 

10,426 

3,895 

14,321 

3,727 

561 

2,077 

776 

2,853 

EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        267 

Using  short-cut  methods,  it  was  found  that  the  apparently 
unnecessarily  engaged  22,031  persons  could  be  divided  as  fol- 
lows: 

UNNECESSARY   ENGAGEMENTS  IN   12  FACTORIES  IN    1912. 

Number  of  engagements. 

Group.                                            New  Rehired 

employees.  employees.  Total. 

A      2,031  750  2,781 

B      2,787  1,031  3.818 

C      5.393  I.99S  7.388 

D      S.183  1.917  7,100 

E      689  25s  944 

Total 16,083  5,948  22,031 

The  next  task  was  to  find  for  each  group  the  principal  items 
of  cost  of  employment  and  they  were  considered  to  be: 

(o)     Clerical  work  in  connection  with  the  hiring  process. 

(&)  Instruction  of  new  employees  by  foremen  and  assist- 
ants. 

(c)  Increased  wear  and  tear  of  machinery  and  tools  by 
new  employees. 

(d)  Reduced  rate  of  production  during  early  period  of  em- 
ployment. 

(e)  Increased  amount  of  spoiled  work  by  new  employees. 
(/)     Greater  accident  ratio  among  new  employees. 

This  does  not  consider  reduced  profits  due  to  a  reduced  pro- 
duction, nor  investment  cost  of  increased  equipment  on  account 
of  the  decreased  productivity  of  machines  on  which  new  em- 
ployees are  being  broken  in. 

The  hiring  expense  applies  to  all  groups  of  labor  to  about 
the  same  extent.  It  consists  of  interviewing  appUcants,  taking 
their  records,  making  out  their  engagement  cards  and  other 
necessary  papers,  and  placing  their  names  on  the  pay-roll  books ; 
sometimes  also  advertising  and  traveling  expenses  will  have  to 
be  incurred.  Reduced  to  the  cost  per  individual,  an  expense  of 
50  cents  for  each  employee  should  be  a  fair  estimate. 

The  instruction  expense,  on  the  other  hand,  will  vary  largely 
according  to  the  experience  and  skill  of  the  new  employee  and 
the  nature  of  his  work.  It  will  be  lowest  for  Group  D  and 
highest  for  Group  C  employees,  for  the  latter  must  be  instructed 
most  and  watched  longest.  The  expense  for  Group  B  employees 
will  be  nearly  as  large  as  that  for  Group  C  employees,  not  be- 
cause they  need  as  prolonged  supervision,  but  because  higher- 


268  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

priced  foremen  will  have  to  give  the  instruction.  Considering 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  required  instruction,  this  expense 
may  be  assumed  to  be  for  each  new  employee :  In  Group  A, 
$7.50;  in  Group  B,  $15;  in  Group  C,  $20;  in  Group  D,  $2;  and 
in  Group  E,  $7.50. 

The  value  of  increased  wear  and  tear  of  machinery  and  tools 
by  new  employees  is  difficult  to  estimate.  It  will  be  little,  if  any- 
thing, for  Groups  D  and  E  employees,  for  whom  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed to  be  $1  per  employee,  while  it  may  reach  thousands  of 
dollars  for  damage  to  expensive  machinery  used  by  Groups  A, 
B,  and  C  employees.  Any  estimate  must  necessarily  be  a  guess ; 
averaging  it  for  employees  working  with  and  without  machin- 
ery, it  may  be  assumed  as  $20  for  each  employee  in  Groups  A, 
B,  and  C. 

The  loss  due  to  reduced  production  is  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  value  of  the  article  produced  and  the  experience  and  skill  of 
the  employee  required  for  its  production.  It  will  be  lowest  for 
Group  D  employees.  It  can  be  estimated  with  approximate  cor- 
rectness for  other  employees  by  considering  their  average  wages 
and  the  average  loss  of  productivity  during  their  initial  period 
of  employment.  It  is  herein  assumed  that  Group  A  employees 
would  receive  an  average  wage  of  $25  per  week  and  would  lose 
in  productivity  25  per  cent  during  the  first,  15  per  cent  during 
the  second,  and  5  per  cent  during  the  third  week  of  employment. 
Similarly,  Group  B  employees  with  average  wages  of  $19  per 
week  would  lose,  respectively,  35  per  cent,  25  per  cent,  and  10 
per  cent  per  week;  Group  C  employees  with  $14  average  weekly 
wages  would  lose,  respectively,  60  per  cent,  35  per  cent,  20  per 
cent,  ID  per  cent,  and  5  per  cent  per  week;  Group  D  employees 
with  $10  average  weekly  wages  would  lose  25  per  cent  and  10 
per  cent  per  week,  and  Group  E  employees  with  $14  average 
weekly  wages  would  lose,  respectively,  50  per  cent,  30  per  cent, 
20  per  cent,  and  10  per  cent  per  week. 

Figuring  overhead  charges  as  75  per  cent  of  wages  for 
Groups  A,  B,  and  C  men  and  40  per  cent  for  Groups  D  and  E 
men,  the  loss  may  amount  to  $21.50  for  each  Group  A,  $23.30  for 
each  Group  B,  $31.80  for  each  Group  C,  $5  for  each  Group  D, 
and  $21.50  for  each  Group  E  employee. 

The  expense  due  to  spoiled  work  will  similarly  vary  with  the 
value  of  the  raw  material  worked  upon  and  the  labor  expended 
in  such  work.     Spoiled  cast-iron  parts  may  mean  little  waste; 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        269 

spoiled  gold  leaf  may  cause  a  considerable  money  loss.  Averag- 
ing the  situation,  practically  nothing  may  be  lost  by  Groups  D 
and  E  employees,  while  the  loss  may  be  assumed  to  be  $10  for 
each  Group  A,  $15  for  each  Group  B,  and  $10  for  each  Group 
C  employee. 

Finally,  it  is  well  known  that  new  employees  are  more  liable 
to  injury  by  accident  than  persons  familiar  with  the  work  and 
methods  of  a  factory.  This  extra  expense  for  medical  service 
and  compensation  payment  may  be  estimated  as  averaging  $3 
per  employee. 

These  cost  items  must  be  reduced  materially  when  they  are 
applied  to  rehired  employees.  The  cost  of  training  old  employees 
will,  of  course,  be  smallest  when  these  employees  are  put  back 
on  the  same,  or  on  similar  work  to  that  on  which  they  were 
engaged  before  they  left  employment  in  the  same  factory.  Many 
rehired  employees,  however,  are  put  on  entirely  new  work,  and 
their  training  will  therefore  involve  an  expenditure  which  will 
more  or  less  approximate  that  needed  for  the  training  of  en- 
tirely new  employees.  On  a  conservative  assumption,  the  cost 
of  hiring  and  training  rehired  employees  may  be  placed  at  $10 
for  each  Group  A,  $20  for  each  Group  B,  $35  for  each  Group 
C,  $5  for  each  Group  D,  and  $10  for  each  Group  E  employee. 
The  respective  totals  of  the  various  cost  items  above  outlined 
are  shown  in  the  following  tabulation. 

ITEMS   OF  COST  FOR  NEW  AND   REHIRED   EMPLOYEES. 

■ NEW    EMPLOYEES 

Wear  Reduced  Rehired 
Group.                    Instruc-  and  produc-  Spoiled  Acci-  employ- 
Hiring,    tion.  tear.  tion.  work,  dents.  Total.        ees. 

A      $0.50     $7.50  $20.00  $21.50  $10.00  $3.00  $62.50     $10.00 

B      50     15.00  20.00  23.30       15-00  3.00  76.80       20.00 

C      50     20.00  20.00  31.80       10.00  3.00  85.30       3S-00 

D      50       2.00  i.oo  500  3-00  11.50         5-00 

E      SO       7.50  1.00  21.50  300  33-50       10.00 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  average  cost  of  hiring  and  firing  has 
been  assumed  to  be  only  $53.92  for  each  new  employee  and  $16 
for  each  rehired  employee,  or  only  $44-44  for  each  hired  em- 
ployee on  the  basis  of  three  new  employees  to  each  rehired  per- 
son. 

When  these  values  for  each  group  are  multiplied  by  the  num- 
ber of  supposedly  unnecessarily  engaged  new  and  rehired  em- 
ployees in  each  group,  the  result  shows  that  the  apparently  un- 
necessary engagement  of  22.oai  employees  within  one  year  in  the 


270  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

12  factories  under  investigation,  employing  an  average  of  40,622 
men  and  women,  involved  an  economic  waste  of  $993,767.50. 
This  sum  will  amount  to  considerably  more  than  a  million  dollars 
if  the  decrease  of  profits  due  to  a  reduced  production  and  the 
increase  of  expense  on  account  of  an  enlarged  equipment  invest- 
ment are  taken  into  consideration. 

It  may  be  well  to  reflect  that  the  total  annual  pay  roll  of  the 
12  factories  was  nearly  $29,000,000  and  that  the  economic  waste 
of  approximately  $1,000,000  on  account  of  faulty  hiring  and 
firing  represented  nearly  3^  per  cent  of  the  pay  roll. 

If  the  experience  of  the  12  factories  were  assumed  to  be 
typical  of  all  manufacturing  industries  of  the  country,  the  na- 
tional economic  loss  from  hiring  and  firing  employees  would 
amount  to  approximately  $172,000,000  annually,  based  on  number 
of  employees;  $187,000,000,  based  on  capitalization;  and  $248,- 
000,000  based  on  total  sales. 

The  important  question  immediatelj'  arises.  How  can  this 
economic  waste  be   avoided  in   future? 

There  are  many  ways  of  improving  the  situation,  but  there  is 
one  fundamentally  necessary  way  without  which  no  lasting  im- 
provement can  be  obtained.  First  of  all,  high-grade  men  must 
be  placed  in  charge  of  employment  departments  as  employment 
executives,  and  they  must  be  given  adequate  authority  within 
their  own  sphere  and  in  conjunction  with  the  other  executives 
of  the  establishment.  Special  capacity  is  needed  for  the  task  of 
selecting  and  placing  men  and  women.  It  requires  persons  of 
impressive  personality  and  high  moral  character,  of  intimate 
knowledge  of  industrial  requirements,  and  preferably  with  prac- 
tical industrial  experience,  firm  in  action  yet  suave  in  manner, 
but  above  all  else  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
The  remuneration  for  such  service  must  of  course  be  adequate 
to  attract  high-grade  persons.  The  employment  executive  should 
be  considered  second  in  importance  to  no  other  assistant  of  the 
works  manager  and  at  least  equal  in  importance  to  the  superin- 
tendent in  charge  of  production.  His  character  and  capacity 
should  eminently  qualify  him  for  the  important  managerial  task 
of  bringing  into  the  factory  the  right  kind  of  human  raw  ma- 
terial, and  of  seeing  to  it  that  the  recruits  are  rightly  used  and 
properly  stimulated  to  become  effective  and  efficient  parts  of  the 
human  machinery,  whether  they  perform  skilled  or  semiskilled 
work  or  tasks  of   ordinary  character.     Moreover,  it  should  be 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        271 

one  of  the  functions  of  the  employment  executive,  in  conjunction 
with  the  superintendent  and  his  foremen,  to  make  the  new  em- 
ployees reasonably  contented  while  in  the  service  and  to  assure 
them  that  they  will  not  be  discharged  except  for  good  and  suffi- 
cient reasons. 

With  a  competent  man  as  employment  executive,  a  rule  could 
and  should  be  enforced  under  which  no  foreman  or  superin- 
tendent would  have  authority  to  discharge  an  employee  from  the 
service  of  the  corporation,  although  he  would  have  the  right  to 
suspend  any  emplo}'ee  from  work  in  his  particular  department, 
pending  further  investigation.  Inasmuch  as  the  employment  ex- 
ecutive would  hire  all  employees,  he  should  also  be  the  only  man 
who  could  fire  employees.  He  would  of  course  be  an  unwise 
man  if  he  should  take  any  step  in  the  exercise  of  this  authority 
that  would  undermine  a  foreman's  or  superintendent's  disciplin- 
ary influence  or  would  otherwise  prove  detrimental  to  efficient 
service.  On  the  contrary,  because  of  his  sole  authority  to  fire 
employees,  he  should  exert  a  strong  influence  over  the  various 
executives  in  the  organization  so  that  they  would  always  treat 
their  employees  with  patience  and  justice,  and  particularly  so 
when  considering  termination  of  their  employment.  On  the 
other  hand,  employees  recommended  for  discharge  should  have 
an  opportunity  to  state  their  cases  to  the  employment  executive 
as  an  impartial  judge,  either  to  receive  justice  at  his  hands  if 
injustice  had  been  done  them  by  their  immediate  superiors,  or 
to  be  clearly  shown  by  him  wherein  they  were  themselves  re- 
sponsible for  termination  of  their  employment.  And  it  stands 
to  reason  that  employees  discharged  under  such  circumstances 
would  leave  the  service  with  less  ill  feeling  toward  the  employer 
than  would  otherwise  exist  because  of  their  unchecked  belief 
that  they  had  been  unjustly  treated. 

There  is  an  additional  important  advantage  in  centering  au- 
thorit}'  for  discharging  employees  in  the  hands  of  the  employ- 
ment executive,  for  he  is  in  a  position  to  make  impartial 
investigations  of  the  reasons  leading  to  discharges  which  may 
reveal  that  the  fault  was  as  much  with  the  management  as  with 
the  employee.  The  latter  may  have  the  required  knowledge  and 
disposition  for  the  work  and  yet  the  conditions  in  his  department 
may  be  operating  against  him ;  he  should  be  saved  to  the  organ- 
ization by  being  put  into  another  department,  when  this  is  prac- 
ticable, where  he  could  and  likely  would  develop  into  an  efficient 


272  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

and  faithful  employee.  Or  a  man  of  usefulness  in  certain  direc- 
tions may  prove  of  comparatively  little  use  because  he  is  placed 
by  the  management  in  the  wrong  position ;  he  is  a  round  peg  and 
the  management  has  tried  to  fit  him  into  a  square  hole.  Of 
course  he  does  not  fit.  But  that  does  not  mean  that  it  is  best  to 
dispense  with  his  services  altogether,  for  there  may  be  round 
holes  in  other  parts  of  the  factory  into  any  of  which  he  would 
fit  nicely  and  which  are  now  either  disadvantageously  filled  with 
square  pegs  or  left  altogether  unfilled,  while  round  pegs  for  them 
are  being  sought.  Without  centralized  authority  in  respect  to 
hiring  and  firing,  the  foreman  of  one  department  may  not,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  know  of  the  men  who  could  or  would  be  made 
available  by  the  foreman  of  another  department,  and  who  could 
fill  his  requirements  and  should  be  utilized  for  that  purpose.  If 
all  engagements  and  discharges  were  directed  through  the  em- 
ployment executive,  the  latter  would  be  in  a  position  to  make 
such  transfers,  as  above  referred  to,  when  advisable.  Transfer 
of  an  unsatisfactory  employee  from  one  department  to  another 
of  the  same  establishment  should  of  course  be  made  only  when 
it  does  not  tend  to  undermine  the  disciplinary  authority  of  the 
foreman  .or  superintendent  of  the  first  department.  By  such 
justified  transfers,  however,  a  great  deal  of  the  otherwise  oc- 
curring economic  waste  of  hiring  and  firing  would  be  avoided 
and  a  great  amount  of  good  will  on  the  part  of  employees  and 
the  community  at  large  would  be  gained. 

Finally,  the  important  fact  must  not  be  overlooked  that  a 
foreman  who  knows  that  his  right  to  discharge  an  employee  in 
his  department  is  limited  to  temporary  suspension  of  such  em- 
ployee and  that  his  action  in  the  matter  will  be  subject  to  the 
scrutiny  of  the  employment  executive,  will  use  all  due  care  be- 
fore exercising  his  right  of  suspension.  Personal  feelings  with 
unjustified  bases  and  racial  or  other  prejudices  which  now  influ- 
ence some  foremen  in  dispensing  with  the  services  of  employees 
will  then  disappear  as  factors  in  determining  the  value  of  em- 
ployees. A  better  cooperation  between  foremen  and  emploj^ees 
under  them  will  result,  in  which  partnership  between  a  worker 
of  higher  disciplinary  rank  and  a  worker  of  lower  rank  will  take 
the  place  of  the  master  and  man  relationship. 

Yet  the  emploj^ment  executive's  task  should  not  be  considered 
complete  when  he  has  brought  good  men  and  women  into  the 
employment.     Important  as  it  is  to  select  the  right  persons  for 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  c>.7z 

the  right  places,  so  that  a  square  peg  is  placed  in  a  square  hole 
and  a  round  peg  in  a  round  hole,  it  is  even  more  important  to 
take  proper  care  of  these  men  and  women  as  soon  as  they  enter 
upon  their  work.  The  best  and  most  competent  person  can  be 
so  discouraged  by  wrong  initial  treatment  that  his  usefulness  will 
be  impaired,  and  either  he  will  leave  his  employment  or  his  dis- 
charge from  it  will  become  advisable,  while  even  an  ordinary 
person  can  often  be  made  a  very  contented  and  useful  economic 
unit  by  right  guidance  and  instruction.  This  at  once  suggests 
that  a  satisfactory  employment  situation  requires  that  adequate 
methods  be  devised  and  practiced  under  which  new  employees 
will  be  properly  taken  care  of,  both  as  men  and  women  and  as 
workmen  and  workwomen. 

To  accomplish  good  results  in  the  one  direction  may  some- 
times mean  the  establishment  of  so-called  welfare  schemes, 
ought  always  to  mean  the  maintenance  of  safe,  sanitary,  and 
wholesome  work  conditions,  but  above  all  else  must  mean  an 
active  personal  interest  of  the  "boss"  in  the  men  and  women  un- 
der his  charge. 

Years  ago,  before  the  development  of  the  modern  extensive 
factory  system,  the  master  worked  personally  and  directly  with 
his  few  emplojees,  and  could  secure  quick  and  willing  respon- 
siveness from  them.  "John,  we've  got  to  finish  this  work  by  to- 
morrow and  you  and  I  must  work  like  hell  to  accomplish  it,"  the 
master  would  then  say  to  his  mechanic,  emphasizing  by  a  slap 
on  the  mechanic's  back  that  he  meant  what  he  said.  John  would 
work  like  hell  and  finish  his  job  within  the  allotted  time.  Now 
it  is  often  a  telephone  message  from  the  superintendent,  and 
another  from  him  to  his  foreman,  and  so  down  the  line  until 
some  minor  assistant  to  the  foreman  transmits  it  to  the  worker. 
Can  we  under  such  circumstances  expect  the  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  modern  Johns  in  our  factories  to  show  the  same 
responsiveness?  And  yet  we  must  find  effective  substitutes  for 
the  old-time  touch  and  inspiration  so  that  even  in  our  mammoth 
establishments  an  unseen  manager  can  slap  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  Johns  on  the  back  and  stir  them  to  work  like  hell. 

To  secure  satisfaction  in  the  other  direction  necessitates  that 
new  employees  be  properly  instructed  in  their  new  tasks.  Every 
factory  has  its  own  methods  of  doing  work,  and  unless  foremen 
and  their  assistants  or  specially  delegated  instructors  initiate 
the  new  men  into  these  methods,  valuable  time  will  be  lost  to  em- 


274  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ployer  and  emplo3Cc  and  the  first  opening  wedge  of  discontent 
will  be  driven  into  the  newly  formed  relationship  of  tlie  two, 
which  may  soon  lead  to  the  employee's  lack  of  interest  in  his 
work  and  his  employer,  and  in  time  to  his  resignation  or  dis- 
charge. 

The  stimulating  influence  of  the  employment  executive  is 
needed  in  both  directions  and  he  will  exert  it  to  the  degree  to 
which  he  proves  himself  to  be  the  big-sized  man  required  for  the 
job. 

Another  important  step  in  the  direction  of  reducing  the  labor 
turnover  in  a  factory  is  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  educa- 
tional opportunities  for  employees  and  for  their  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, as  well  as  for  boys  and  girls  in  general. 

It  is  becoming  recognized  again,  as  it  was  decades  ago,  that 
the  employer  has  a  peculiar  duty  to  perform  toward  his  em- 
ployees and  himself  as  well  as  toward  the  industry,  by  offering 
to  train  and  by  properly  training  the  youth  of  the  land  who  wish, 
or  by  circumstances  may  be  obliged,  to  choose  a  vocational 
career  for  a  livelihood.  To  a  certain  extent  most  employers 
take  an  interest  in  the  problem  of  training  young  people  for  effi- 
cient industrial  service,  either  through  apprenticeship  systems  or 
in  connection  with  public  or  private  trade  schools.  Most  of 
these  employers,  however,  have  yet  to  learn  that  it  is  essentially 
worth  their  while  to  set  aside  a  part  of  their  own  busy  time  and 
thought  and  to  devote  appropriate  effort  and  financial  support 
for  this  important  work. 

Large  factories  can  of  course  institute  comprehensive  self- 
contained  training  systems.  Where  the  factory  is  not  large 
enough,  or  the  character  of  the  work  does  not  offer  sufficient 
opportunity  for  the  establishment  of  such  training  systems,  em- 
ployers in  the  same  industry  and  the  same  locality  can  ad- 
vantageously merge  their  efforts  into  a  common  training  system ; 
or  they  can  closely  cooperate  with  private  or  public  school 
authorities  toward  the  same  end.  It  stands  to  reason  that  young 
people  trained  by  industry  in  industry  will,  if  they  are  properly 
trained,  develop  a  spirit  of  loyalty  toward  their  employer  and 
toward  industrial  employers  in  general,  which  will  lengthen  their 
own  period  of  employment  and  will  exert  a  steadying  influence 
upon  other  employees. 

Aside  from  well-organized  apprenticeship  courses  for  young 
people,   or  cooperative   training  courses  with  public  or  private 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        275 

schools,  there  is  great  need  also  for  the  establishment  of  short- 
time  specialist  courses  through  which  adult  men  and  women 
without  any  particular  education  or  skill  may  be  trained  to  per- 
form efificientl}'  one  or  more  industrial  operations.  While  to  a 
certain  extent  everj^  foreman  in  the  course  of  his  daily  work 
endeavors  to  train  new  employees,  I  believe  there  should  be 
special  instructors  attached  to  various  departments  who  would 
systematically  endeavor  to  develop  unskilled  men  and  women 
into  semiskilled  and,  as  far  as  practicable,  develop  semiskilled 
persons  into  employees  skilled  in  at  least  one  major  operation 
of  industrial  work.  By  so  lifting  employees  to  a  higher  plane  of 
industrial  usefulness,  employers  would  not  only  advance  their 
own  interests  and  reduce  the  labor  turnover  in  their  factories, 
but  they  would  also  materially  advance  the  interests  of  their  em- 
ployees, while  at  the  same  time  they  would  exert  some  of  the 
best  efforts  for  the  social  advancement  of  their  communities. 

Finally,  the  labor  turnover  in  a  factory  and  the  expense  con- 
nected with  it  can  be  reduced  to  the  extent  to  which  the  zigzag 
curve  of  productive  requirements  can  be  smoothed  into  a  more 
even  wave  line.  The  task  is  fraught  with  many  difficulties  that 
arise  from  the  fact  that  after  all  the  buying  public  is  the  real 
master  of  the  situation.  The  employer  can,  however,  influence 
the  buying  public,  by  educational  propaganda  or  by  the  offer  of 
advantageous  trade  prices,  to  help  him  in  his  endeavor  to 
standardize  his  production  so  as  to  maintain  a  fairly  equal  fac- 
tory output  throughout  the  year,  which  in  turn  would  allow  him 
to  give  steady  employment  to  his  people.  Several  significant  ex- 
amples of  successful  effrrt  in  this  direction  may  well  serve  as 
encouragement  for  further  endeavor. 

Along  the  lines  of  remedy  herein  suggested  may  be  found 
the  solution  of  a  problem  which  is  beginning  to  loom  large  be- 
fore our  eyes  and  will  grow  in  importance  as  international  com- 
petition grows  more  keen  after  the  close  of  the  war  now  raging. 
Early  steps  should  therefore  be  taken  to  check  the  enormous 
economic  waste  incidental  to  the  present  haphazard  methods  of 
hiring  and  firing,  in  order  that  American  industries  may  be  pre- 
pared to  cope  with  the  impending  international  trade  situation. 

It  is  also  important  to  reflect,  in  view  of  certain  legislative 
and  administrative  tendencies  now  affecting  American  industries, 
that  constant  fluctuation  in  the  working  force  of  an  establish- 
ment  must   materially    increase    the     difficulty    of     maintaining 


276  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

among  the  employees  a  spirit  of  general  contentment  and  of 
loyalty  to  the  management. 

As  quicksand  can  not  be  kneaded  in  the  hands  into  a  solid 
lump,  so  also  will  it  be  found  difficult  to  take  hold  of  an  ever- 
changing  mass  of  employees  and  transform  it  into  a  homogene- 
ous, intelligent,  and  contented  body.  Moreover,  this  condition 
will  tend  to  nullify,  to  a  large  degree,  the  beneficial  tendencies 
of  many  well-intentioned  efforts  of  employers,  such  as  sickness 
and  accident  insurance  and  old-age  pension  systems,  and  other 
phases  of  industrial  betterment  work. 

And  last,  but  not  least,  the  problem  herewith  presented  offers 
an  opportunity  for  constructive  work  in  which  employers  and 
employees  can  readily  be  brought  together  for  mutual  benefit, 
for  no  right-thinking  man,  whatever  his  position  or  affiliation, 
can  justly  object  to  any  well-directed  plan  which  seeks  to  give 
employees  continuous  work  throughout  the  year  and  to  enable 
employers  to  maintain  steady  production. 

Close  analysis  of  the  men  and  women  whom  we  take  into 
our  employ,  effective  systems  under  which  we  train  them  in  our 
work,  fair  treatment  while  they  are  in  our  service,  and  adequate 
methods  to  insure  their  dismissal  only  for  justified  cause  or  their 
voluntary  withdrawal  with  no  ill  feeling  toward  their  employer — 
these  are  essential  factors  in  a  proper  solution  of  the  problem  of 
"hiring  and  firing."  They  must  be  our  earnest  concern  lest  we 
waste  money  in  our  businesses  and  sacrifice  friendly  relationship 
with  our  employees,  without  gaining  advantage  either  to  them 
or  to  ourselves. 


ELEMENTS  IN  THE  COST  OF  LABOR 
TURNOVER ' 

A  Symposium 

With  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Daniel  Bloomfield,  Industrial 
Management  prepared  and  sent  out  a  questionnaire  relating  to 
the  factors  and  methods  used  in  determing  the  cost  of  labor 
turnover.    The  questions  are  : 

I.  In  determining  the  cost  of  labor  turnover  what  general 
elements  would  you  consider? 

I  Industrial  Management.     57:239-45.     March,    1919. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        277 

2.  What  specific  elements  in  the  overhead  charges  of  a  con- 
cern would  you  consider  in, 

(a)  the   hiring  process? 

(b)  the  training  process  both  direct  and  indirect? 

(c)  transfers  and  readjustments  of  workers? 

(d)  the  process  of  termination? 

3.  What  other  charges,   if  any,  would  be  factors? 

4.  By  what  mathematical  or  accounting  method  or  methods 
can  all  the  elements  involved  in  the  cost  of  labor  turn- 
over be  accurately  appraised? 

5.  Please  name  any  plants  where  the  cost  of  turnover  has 
been  figured  and  if  possible  state  the  method  used? 

A  number  of  helpful  replies  have  been  received  and  from 
these  the  following  have  been  selected: 

By  Wm.  B.  Purdy  1 

Following  is  the  formula  we  have  devised  for  the  computing 
of  the  cost  of  labor  turnover: 

A.  Number  of  men  handled  by  the  employment  department: 

1.  Number  of  men  interviewed. 

2.  Number  of  men  whose  records  are  looked  up. 

3.  Number  of  men  examined  by  the  doctor. 

4.  Number  of   men   photographed. 

B.  Number  of  men  starting  to  work. 

C.  Salary  of  the  hiring  and  firing  force : 

1.  Interviewers. 

2.  Record  searchers. 

3.  Doctor. 

4.  Statistical  clerk. 

5.  Photographers. 

6.  Number  clerk. 

7.  Ten  employees  of  time  department. 

D.  Salary   of    executives   and   of   minor   employees   of   em- 
ployment work: 

I.    Manager. 


Assistant  manager. 

Messenger  boy. 

Stenographer. 

Guard. 

Janitor. 


1  Employment   Manager,   Atlantic    Refining   Co. 


278  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

E.  Cost  of  equipment  and  overhead  expense  of  employment 
work: 

1.  Rental  of  employment,  time,  and  photo  offices. 

2.  Light  and  heat. 

3.  Telephones. 

4.  Stationery  and  supplies. 

5.  Depreciation  of  equipment. 

F.  Cost  of   training  and   reduced   production : 

1.  Foreman's  time. 

2.  Loss  of  time  in  delivery  of  employees. 

3.  Depreciation  of  machinery. 

4.  Decreased  output  of  men  and  machinery. 

G.  Cost  of   scout  duty  and   advertising : 

1.  Salary   of    scouts. 

2.  Expense  of  scouts. 

3.  Cost  of  advertising. 

By  Dr.  William  Alfred  Sawyer'^ 

We  start  with  the  conclusion  that  any  figures  set  on  the 
cost  of  labor  turnover  must  be  arbitrary  and  are  the  result  of 
estimates,  but  in  order  to  have  such  estimates  as  close  to  ac- 
tual conditions  as  possible,  and  at  the  same  time  have  them  rep- 
resent averages,  we  aim  to  divide  our  costs  into  four  general 
groups  as  follows : 

1.  Help  remaining  for  a  period  of  less  than  three  weeks. 

2.  Help   remaining   for   a  period   between   three   weeks   and 

three  months. 

3.  Help  remaining  for  a  period  over  three  months. 

4.  Help  engaged  but  not  reporting. 

The  first  three  classifications  are  for  periods  of  time  which 
we  estimate  mark  periods  where  progress  on  an  average  takes 
place  in  the  skill  and  productiveness  of  an  employee.  Of 
course,  there  are  exceptions.  Where  an  employee  has  been  with 
us  for  several  years  and  leaves,  the  cost  of  replacement  may  be 
largely  in  excess  of  replacement  of  the  employee  who  has  been 
with  us  but  four  months,  but  we  figure  that  on  an  average  three 
months  is  ample  time  in  our  business  for  the  average  man  to 
reach  full  productiveness. 

We  next  subdivide  our  employees  into  general  groups  cov- 

'  Director,   Health   and   Employment,   American   Pulley   Co. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        279 

ering  the  class  of  labor  which  we  employ:  Press  operators, 
press  laborers,  assemblers,  riveters,  inspectors,  others  not  includ- 
ing laborers  working  on  assembling,  machinists,  maintenance, 
sash  pulley  operators,  all  help  not  including  laborers,  laborers. 

The  cost  under  each  classification  is  then  figured  by  the  fol- 
lowing formula : 

I.     Help  Remaining  for  a  Period  of  Less  Than  Three  Weeks 

During  the  first  three  weeks  a  ^ew  employee  is  figured  to 
cost  a  proportion  of  the  daily  wage  of  one  other  employee 
through  the  necessary  time  spent  in  instructing  the  newcomer. 
This  figure  is  arbitrarily  set,  based  on  the  best  estimate  we  can 
make  of  the  earnings  of  such  employee  whose  time  is  consumed. 
To  this  we  add  an  estimated  figure  representing  the  reduced 
productiveness  of  the  new  employee  over  what  is  normal  for  the 
older  employees  in  the  department.  The  sum  of  these  two 
figures  we  class  as  lost  productive  labor  and  to  it  we  add  our 
average  overhead,  the  total  representing  our  estimated  cost  per 
day  of  an  employee  who  leaves  within  three  weeks  of  starting. 

Our  figures  show  that  the  average  employee  leaving  us  with- 
in three  weeks  of  starting  works  eight  days,  consequently  we  es- 
timate our  average  total  cost  of  employees  leaving  within  a 
three-weeks  period  is  eight  times  the  daily  estimate. 

For  example,  press  hands  are  estimated  as  follows : 

(a)  During  first  three  weeks  the  new  man  is  figured 
to  consume  directly  a  proportion  of  one  other 
man's  time  daily,  which  is  estimated  at  $     .75 

(b)  A  reduced  speed  of  production   for  new  man   is 

as  costing  .75 


Lost  productive  labor  1.50 

(c)     Overhead   on   productive    labor,    estimated  1.50 


Total  (daily)  $  3.00 

Those  classified  as  leaving  within  three  weeks 
are  estimated  to  average  eight  working  days  (8  x 
$3-00)  $24.00 

2.     Help  Remaining  for  a  Period  Between  Three  Weeks  and 

Three  Months 

After    three   weeks   we  find,    on    an   average,    that   the   pro- 


28o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

ductiveness  of  an  employee  becomes  better,  the  percentage  of 
betterment  varying  with  the  particular  group  under  which  he  is 
classed,  consequently  in  ascertaining  cost  of  replacement  for 
those  who  have  been  with  us  from  three  zveeks  to  three  months, 
we  average  as  follows : 

Multiply  the  daily  cost  by  i6^  (three  weeks  of  sY^  days 
per  week)  to  ascertain  the  cost  at  the  end  of  three  weeks  and 
to  this  add  a  reduced  daily  cost,  the  employee  having  become 
skilled,  for  a  period,  which  our  records  show  as  the  average 
number  of  days  over  three  weeks  that  employees  remain  who 
leave  us  within  three  months. 

The  total  represents  our  estimated  figure  of  cost  for  em- 
ployees leaving  between  three  weeks  and  three  months. 

For  example  take  press  hands : 

After  three  weeks,  conditions  are  estimated  to  better  them- 
selves about  80  per  cent. ;  the  cost  would  therefore  be  as  follows : 

165/2  days  at  $3.00  $49-50 

One-half  of  the  balance   of  three  months,   27J/2   days, 
at  reduced  daily  cost  of  production  of  .60  16.50 


Total  $66.00 

3.    Help   Remaining  for   a   Period  of   Over  Three  Months 

In  arriving  at  cost  of  those  remaining  over  three  months,  we 
adopt  the  same  plan  as  above,  adding  to  the  full  cost  for  three 
months  the  estimated  cost  for  the  average  additional  period. 
For  example, 

Those  classified  as  leaving  after  three  months  would 
cost  the  previous  amount  ($66)  plus  27^  days  addi- 
tional, the  balance  of  the  three-months  period,  which 
at  .60  is  $16.50 

66.00 


Total  $82.50 

4    Help  Engaged  But  Not  Reporting 

In  figuring  cost  of  those  engaged  but  not  reporting  for  work, 
we  estimate  the  delay  has  cost  us  a  figure  represented  by  the 
overhead  on  the  amount  the  operator  would  receive  for  one 
day's  producing  labor;  or  where  other  than  productive  labor, 
a  figure  represented  by  one  day's  wages  of  the  individual. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        281 

In  the  press  room  other  than  press  hands  are  estimated  as 
follows : 

Un familiarity    with    work  .50 

Foreman's  time  directing  .25 


Lost  non-productive  labor  cost  .75 

Calculations  on  same  basis  as  provided  for  press  hands,  ex- 
cept improvement  after  three  weeks,  90  per  cent. 

SUMMARY  OF  LABOR  TURNOVER  COSTS 

Leaving 
between 

Leaving       three  Leaving 

prior     weeks  and  after 

Not          to  three        three  three 

reporting,     weeks.       months,  months. 
Press   room : 

Press    hands    $6.00         $24.00         $66.00  $82.50 

Other  than  press  hands 3.00             6.00            14-43  16.49 

Assembling  room: 

Assemblers     6.00  44-96  138.93  i8s-i3 

Riveters    6.00  S4-96  169.90  226.55 

Inspectors     6.00  56.00  173-25  231.00 

Other   employees   except   laborers..  4.50  24.96  68.53  85.58 

Engineering    6.75  4000  67.50  95.00 

Maintenance    6.75  40.00  81.25  122.50 

Sash    pulley     3-75  16-00  44.00  SS-oo 

Laborers    3-oo  6.00  14-43  16.49 

We  feel  there  are  a  number  of  points  in  our  method  that 
are  capable  of  improvement,  but  we  are  keeping  records  under 
this  plan  which  we  expect  to  alter  from  time  to  time  as  ex- 
perience shows  desirable. 

This  general  plan  of  analysis  was  originally  drawn  up  by 
Mr.  Horace  Sheble,  assistant  to  the  manager,  and  I  am  glad  to 
give  him  credit  therefor. 

By  Charles  E.  Fouhy^ 

During  the  war  the  abnormality  of  labor  turnover  was  a  very 
important  factor  in  all  industrial  matters  pertaining  to  produc- 
tion. Manufacturers  all  over  the  country  instituted  all  kinds 
of  bonus  systems,  rewarding  the  worker  for  clear  records  in 
attendance  and  production.  They  put  into  effect  all  manner  of 
schemes  that  would  bring  the  worker  to  work  on  time  and  keep 
him  on  the  job  every  day.  In  doing  this  they  established  im- 
provements   in   the    shop,    all    for    the   purpose   of    making   the 

*  Employment  Manager,  Curtis  Aeroplane  &  Motor  Corporation. 


282  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

working  conditions  as  satisfactory  and  congenial  as  possible  in 
the  hope  that  tlicir  employees  would  be  satisfied  and  not  seek 
new  positions. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  was  done  for  their  comfort  and 
convenience  it  did  not  prevent  a  great  many  from  quitting  and 
going  to  other  concerns. 

If  the  shop  conditions  were  as  ideal  as  possible  and  the 
management  interested  in  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the 
workers,  what  caused  this  continual  labor  turnover? 

To  get  at  the  real  solution  of  this  question  one  must  visu- 
alize the  labor  conditions  about  1914  or  1915.  During  this 
period  there  was  more  or  less  unemployment  and  the  problem 
of  labor  turnover  was  not  so  much  in  evidence.  Shortly  be- 
fore the  United  States  entered  the  war  the  demand  for  workers 
was  on  the  rise  and  with  it  came  the  bargaining  back  and  forth 
among  employers  for  experienced  mechanics.  Coincident  with 
this  came  the  gradual  raise  in  rates  and  the  alluring  want  ad- 
vertisements for  help  which  caused  workmen  to  feel  that  there 
were  so  many  opportunities  for  positions  abroad  paying  more 
money  that  they  were  wasting  their  time  staying  in  old  positions. 

During  the  time  when  our  labor  turnover  was  the  highest 
over  60  per  cent,  of  those  leaving  us  left  of  their  own  accord, 
notwithstanding  all  we  did  to  make  our  workers  happy,  con- 
tented and  satisfied.  Since  the  armistice  was  signed  a  great 
part  of  our  contracts  were  cancelled  and  this  necessitated  lay- 
ing off  a  large  portion  of  our  employees. 

Now  that  the  prospects  of  securing  new  positions  are  not 
very  promising  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  stability  of  labor. 

It  has  been  a  predominating  fact  that  the  American  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  restless  person  who  readily  moves  from  one  job 
to  another  without  much  thought  or  consideration  of  the  part  he 
plays  in  industry.  An  analysis  of  our  removals  of  recent 
date  shows  that  instead  of  60  per  cent,  leaving  of  their  own 
accord  it  is  now  only  7  per  cent,  of  the  total.  This  indicates 
that  the  supply  and  demand  on  the  labor  market  is  the  barome- 
ter of  labor  turnover.  When  jobs  are  numerous  and  there  is 
keen  competition  for  labor  then  labor  turnover  is  high ;  when 
the  reverse  is  the  order  labor  turnover  is  low. 

Our  experience  proves  that  if  you  base  your  service  and  wel- 
fare work  on  the  premise  that  this  alone  will  reduce  your  turn- 
over then  you  are  laboring  under  a  wrong  impression. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        283 

It  is  necessary  and  right  that  everything  possible  should  be 
done  to  make  the  working  environment  satisfactory  in  every 
respect.  Not  only  should  we  do  the  material  things,  but  we 
must  put  a  soul  into  our  work  if  we  intend  to  get  the  lasting 
results  we  strive  for. 

In  the  abstract  it  is  not  how  attractive  you  make  the  work- 
ing conditions  but  rather  have  you  done  these  things  because 
you  have  the  real  interests  of  the  workers  at  heart.  If  it  has 
been  based  on  selfish  motives  then  all  your  efforts  have  been 
disappointing. 

There  is  no  getting  around  the  fact  that  the  principal  cause 
for  labor  turnover  is  the  inherent  ambition  of  the  masses  to 
better  their  financial  income,  and  wdth  this  thought  in  the  minds 
of  the  workers  during  prosperous  times  most  concerns  have  no 
idea  of  the  relative  cost  of  labor  turnover. 

For  a  six-months  period,  from  January,  1918,  to  June,  1918, 
we  found  it  cost  an  average  of  $2.72  for  every  person  passing 
through  the  employment  department  as  a  new  employee.  In 
figuring  the  cost  we  took  into  consideration  the  following  items 
based  on  the  average  number  of  persons  hired :  Indirect  la- 
bor, treasurer's  roll,  expense  material  requisitioned,  liability  in- 
surance, heat,  light,  telephone  tolls,  telegrams,  telephone  ex- 
pense, employment  advertising,  traveling  expenses,  stationery 
and  office  supplies,  rent  of  typewriters,  fire  insurance,  fire  and 
police,  janitor  service,  overtime  meals,  and  miscellaneous 
supplies. 

In  the  majority  of  occupations  in  the  aeroplane  industry  it 
is  not  possible  to  go  into  the  open  labor  market  and  secure  ex- 
perienced aeroplane  mechanics.  Necessarily  we  must  develop 
most  of  our  men  and  in  doing  this  the  element  of  cost  is  more 
difficult  to  determine  than  would  be  the  case  in  a  well  organized 
business  of  long  standing. 

We  recently  conducted  an  investigation  by  divisions  in  our 
industry  and  the  following  is  a  statement  from  Mr.  C.  G. 
Robinson,  superintendent  of  our  wood  mill : 

The  cost  of  replacing  men  in  this  division  has  been  very  expensive. 
For  this  reason  we  have  always  been  very  careful  in  the  discharge  of  any 
employee,  preferring  to  put  up  with  a  certain  measure  of  inefficiency 
rather  than  incur  the  annoyance  and  consequent  cost  which  inevitably  fol- 
lowed  the   replacement   of  an   employee. 

This  excessive  cost  of  labor  turnover  is  due  to  the  accuracy  with  which 
the  work  has  to  be  performed  and  while  wel  control  to  the  minimum,  the 
discbarge  of  employees,  we  are  unable  to  control  the  arbitrary  lay-offs,  due 
to   changes   of   plans,   cancellations,   etc. 


284 


SELECTED   ARTICLES 


In  our  conversation  I  told  you  that  for  every  man  replaced  it  cost' this 
division  $ioo  before  the  man  became  efficient  and  capable  of  performing  a 
dependable  day's  work.  After  further  investigation  I  want  to  qualify  this 
statement  by  explaining  to  you  that  I  meant  only  that  this  cost  of  $ioo 
represented  machine  operators  and  woodworkers,  but  did  not  cover  the 
propeller  situation,  where  the  cost  of  replacing  a  man  is  $300.  I  cite  for 
your  information  a  few  instances  to  substantiate  the  statement  made 
to  you. 

As  a  general  proposition  when  a  man  who  is  a  reasonably  good  cabinet 
maker  or  woodworker  comes  into  our  propeller  department  it  takes  six 
months  of  solid  training  and  driving  for  him  to  reach  grade  C. 

Example  A:  Grade  A  man  requiring  an  average  time  to  make  a  pro- 
peller of  TYi  hours  has  instructed  approximately  50  men,  only  three  of 
whom  have  turned  out  as  real  propeller  makers.  The  others  have  failed 
and  have  been  transferred  to  other  departments  or  received  their  releases. 

Example  B:  This  man  started  five  months  ago.  At  that  time  he  aver- 
aged 18  hours  on  a  propeller.  His  time  today  is  9.3  hours  on  a  similar 
propeller. 

Example  C:  An  experienced  propeller  maker  hired  at  Grand  Rapids. 
He  started  out  by  spoiling  two  propellers.  Average  time  per  propeller  13 
hours. 

Example  D:  Class  A  man,  time  to  make  propeller  7.5  hours.  This 
he  averages  when  alone.  When  breaking  in  a  new  man  it  takes  him  13.8 
hours   on   the  job. 

Example  E:  Transferred  from  the  boat  hull  department  recently. 
Started  as  an  expert  woodworker.  He  is  averaging'  about  18.5  hours  on  a 
propeller. 

Example  F:  Transferred  from  the  boat  hull  department  as  an  expert 
woodworker.  Ha  is  averaging  15.9  hours  on  a  propeller.  The  prescribed 
time  on   this  propeller   is  4  hours. 

Regarding  machine  operations  and  woodworkers  in  general,  it  is  my 
position  that  it  costs  us  $100  for  every  replacement  and  this  is  fully  con- 
firmed by  the  following  facts.  Before  a  man  can  be  proclaimed  efficient 
he  must  reach  the  stage  of  an  expert  blue  print  reader.  Approximately 
one  man  in  four  will  qualify  after  a  period  of  training  varying  from  one 
to  twelve  months. 

The  following  table  shows  the  time  it  takes  to  break  in  a  machine 
operator,  working  cither  on  a  shaper,  sticker  or  automatic  shaper,  finish 
saw  or  tennoner.  In  the  shaping  of  wood  parts  by  hand  it  takes  one  to 
three  months  to   train  a  man  before  he  reaches  a  reasonable  classification. 


Months 
of  training 

Machines 


I  to  12  I  to  6 

(   Sticker  Tennoner 

(  Shaper  Finish  Saw 
(  Auto  shaper 


I  to  3 
Router 

Strut  machine 
Rip  saw 
Boring  machine 


Machine  Shop  Workers 


It  would  appear  to  me  that  in  the  adjustment  of  costs  this 
item  would  be  one  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  as  it  certainly 
is  a  big  element. 

The  following  is  the  estimated  time  necessary  to  train  un- 
skilled workers  in  the  metal   division  on  various  operations : 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT 


285 


Lost 

Rate 

time 

per  hour 

per  cent. 

cents. 

Cost. 

SO 

45 

$11.25 

2S 

45 

2.03 

25 

45 

5.63 

75 

4S 

91-13 

25 

45 

5.63 

SO 

45 

4-05 

50 

45 

45-00 

25 

45 

22.50 

10 

45 

9.00 

50 

45 

45-00 

10 

45 

2.25 

25 

45 

5-63 

25 

45 

11.25 

0 

Averaee . . 

.  .$20.03 

Time 
required 

Department.  to  learn. 

Punch   press    i  week 

Chopper    and   metal   saws  —  2  days 

Hand    screw    machine i  week 

Production    lathe    30  days 

Production    milling    machine  i  week 

Drill    press     2  days 

Sheet    metal    tube    filing....  4  weeks 

Sheet    metal   bench    hand...  4  weeks 

Furnace    brazer    4  weeks 

Torch    welding    4  weeks 

Heat   treat    i  week 

Sand  blast i  week 

Polishing     2  weeks 

Plating    I   hour 


These  figures  do  not  take  into  consideration  any  of  the 
elements  of  overhead  such  as  are  mentioned  in  the  cost  analysis 
of  the  employment  department.  This  allows  only  for  the  actual 
time  required  to  break  in  an  unskilled  operator  in  the  different 
jobs. 

In  the  case  of  a  first  class  machinist  the  cost  of  replacing 
him  is  relatively  small.  He  is  given  the  blue  prints  and  it  mat- 
ters little  to  a  first  class  man  whether  he  is  working  on  aero- 
plane parts  or  on  marine  engines. 

In  the  case  of  a  machine  set-up  man  the  cost  of  replacing 
him  is  much  greater  than  a  machine  operator.  The  set-up  man 
must  necessarily  learn  the  location  of  the  different  tools  and  fix- 
tures for  the  various  classes  of  work  he  is  called  upon  to  handle. 
It  should  not  take  him  over  a  day  or  two  before  he  is  perform- 
ing real  production  work.  We  estimate  the  cost  of  breaking 
in  a  set-up  man  to  be  $50. 

In  the  tool  room  we  find  the  opinion  is  that  a  first  class  tool 
maker  represents  a  very  small  cost  in  labor  turnover.  The 
work  requires  careful  attention  and  the  amount  of  work  turned 
out  does  not  measure  in  the  same  category  as  production  work. 

Flying  Boat  Hull  Department 


In  our  flying  boat  hull  department  we  found  it  extremely 
difficult  to  estimate  a  cost  due  to  the  fact  that  every  man  in 
the  department  had  to  learn  the  operation  and  the  usual  prac- 
tice was  to  start  all  of  them  in  on  the  simple  work  and  by 
easy  stages  develop  them  to  the  most  important  jobs.  It  will 
take  about  a  month's  time  to  turn  out  a  first  class  man  in  this 


286  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

department  regardless  of  his  previous  experience  as  an  expert 
woodworker  on  other  operations.  We  grade  our  men  in  pay 
during  the  learning  period  and  if  we  rate  a  man  on  an  average 
of  50  cents  per  hour  and  allow  that  it  takes  a  month  to  train 
him  it  is  safe  to  saj'  he  has  cost  us  $117. 

In  the  panel  or  wing  department  the  length  of  time  re- 
quired is  from  two  weeks  to  a  month  and  figuring  tlie  rate  at 
50  cents  per  hour  would  cost  us  from  $58.50  to  $117  to  replace 
a  man  on  this  work. 

Boat  and  Plane  Assembly 

In  our  final  boat  and  plane  assembly  department  we  go 
through  the  same  general  line  of  operation  to  instruct  a  man 
as  we  do  in  our  other  departments.  It  takes  from  three  to  five 
days  to  develop  a  man  to  a  point  where  he  is  able  to  handle  this 
particular  work  without  any  considerable  loss.  In  other  words 
we  do  not  put  a  "green"  man  on  a  class  of  work  in  our  final 
assembly  where  there  is  any  possibility  of  his  spoiling  work,  and 
then  again  our  supervision  is  so  exact  in  this  work  and  every 
man's  work  is  checked  so  frequently  that  he  would  not  be  left 
long  enough  to  spoil  any  work. 

However,  after  a  workman  has  become  thoroughly  ex- 
perienced and  capable  of  carrying  on  his  own  end  of  the  work 
the  cost  of  replacing  him  is  considerable.  The  superintendent 
of  this  division  estimates  that  it  costs  the  company  at  least  $100 
every  time  one  of  his  best  men  leaves  him. 

In  figuring  the  actual  cost  of  labor  turnover  for  our  plant 
it  is  imperative  that  we  realize  the  extraordinary  need  of  the 
shop  and  the  method  of  training  and  instructing  we  have  de- 
veloped  in   our  production   work. 

Unskilled  Women  Workers 

We  have  maintained  a  training  school  for  instructing  un- 
skilled female  w^orkers  going  into  various  production,  inspec- 
tion and  clerical  positions  and  we  find  that  the  average  over- 
head cost  for  training  these  people  for  a  three  months'  period 
is  $34.27,  allowing  an  average  attendance  of  278  girls  under 
training. 

In  determining  the  cost  of  training  the  girls  and  women,  the 
following    items    were    considered :    Indirect    labor,    treasurer's 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  2S7 

roll,  expense  materials  requisitioned,  liability  insurance,  sta- 
tionery and  office  supplies,  heat,  power  and  light,  depreciation 
of  factory  building,  fire  and  police  service,  janitor  service,  tele- 
phone expense,  telephone  tolls,  telegrams,  repair  and  main- 
tenance buildings. 

Estimating  that  75  per  cent,  of  this  cost  can  be  charged  to 
the  finished  product  turned  out  by  the  school  and  put  into  pro- 
duction, would  make  the  actual  cost  of  training  the  workers 
$8.47.  In  this  particular  case  we  have  a  definite  fixed  proposi- 
tion. Here  we  have  the  unskilled,  untrained  female  worker 
who  must  be  instructed  before  she  can  be  placed  on  production 
work.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  we  placed  her  in  the  train- 
ing department  for  an  intensive  training  and  we  must  of  ne- 
cessity maintain  an  organization  of  instructors  and  assistants 
to  equip  her  properly  for  shop  work. 

When  she  is  promoted  she  is  better  qualified  for  production 
work  than  a  new  employee  coming  directly  into  the  shop  with- 
out passing  through  the  training  department,  and  considering 
the  same  element  of  overhead  that  is  already  mentioned,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  cost  of  training  her  directly  in  production 
departments  would  be  at  least  100  per  cent,  greater,  allowing 
for  the  extra  time  it  would  take  foremen  to  instruct  her,  wear 
and  tear  of  machinery  and  tools,  loss  of  production,  spoiled 
work  and  mistakes  and  general  overhead  expense. 

By  far  the  most  economical  way  of  reducing  the  cost  of 
replacing  workers  in  production  work  is  to  route  them  through 
a  training  department  for  intensive  training  where  they  will 
handle  exactly  the  same  product  they  would  be  expected  to  turn 
out  on  production  work. 

DETERMINING  COST  OF  TURNOVER 
OF  LABOR' 

The  following  tentative  proposals  for  a  real  cost  sj^stem  for 
labor  turnover  are  offered  for  criticism.  To  date  all  estimates 
of  the  cost  of  hiring  and  firing  have  been  mere  guesswork. 

To  follow  the  method  here  proposed  will  be  expensive,  but 
once  there  have  been  accumulated  reliable  statistics  on  the  sub- 
ject the  process  of  correction  and  follow-up  will  not  be  costly. 

^  By  Boyd  Fisher.  Former  Vice-President,  Detroit  Executives  Club. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Bui.  227.  p.  60-65.     October,   19 17. 


288  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Furthermore,  the  research  can  well  be  parceled  out  among  vari- 
ous plants  to  render  immediate  results  of  value.  This,  how- 
ever, should  not  be  mistaken  for  saying  that  the  extent  of  each 
element  of  cost  is  the  same  in  various  plants.  It  is  probably 
merely  sufficiently  the  same  so  that  if  several  plants  study  each 
feature  the  average  results  will  yield  an  honest,  average  figure. 
Each  individual  plant  must  determine  its  own  cost  to  get  accurate 
results  for  its  own  guidance,  and  must  expect  the  cost  to  vary 
somewhat  from  year  to  year. 

Mr.  Alexander  estimated  the  cost  of  hiring  a  laborer  at 
$8.50  and  an  unskilled  machine  operative  at  $73.50.  Thus  we  see 
that  if  his  figures  are  correct  a  100  per  cent  turnover  of  un- 
skilled machine  operatives  costs  as  much  as  an  860  per  cent 
turnover  of  laborers.  This  difference  in  cost  warrants  our 
spending  money  and  time  to  get  reliable  data.  Furthermore,  it 
reveals  how  inconclusive  is  the  practice  of  stating  turnover 
merely  in  percentages  which  lump  together  turnover  of  all 
grades  of  workers.  A  definite  knowledge  of  cost  will  show  us 
where  we  ought  to  place  the  greatest  emphasis  in  efforts  to  re- 
duce turnover,  and  will  guide  us  accurately  in  deciding  how 
much  to  spend  on  apprentice  instruction,  welfare  work,  and  im- 
proved employment  methods,  and  especially  give  us  knowledge 
of  an  employee's  increasing  usefulness  to  a  concern  as  a  basis 
for  making  wage  increases  for  long  service. 

It  should  be  noted,  in  connection  with  the  accompanying  out- 
line, that  no  mention  is  made  of  the  cost  of  rehiring  former  em- 
ployees. This  obviously  differs  from  the  cost  of  hiring  new 
men.  The  cost,  however,  can  be  figured  for  each  item  precisely 
as  with  new  employees.  Former  and  new  employees  should 
simply  be   analzed  separately. 

DETERMINING  COST   OF  TURNOVER. 

I.  What  is  meant  by   "turnover": 

1.  The  average  standing  pay  roll  for  any  given  period  should  be  given 

as  basis. 

2.  In  case  there  is  a  general  reduction  in  the  number  of  positions  dur- 

ing the  period,  the  percentage  of  new  employees  to  the  average 
standing  pay  roll  should  be  taken. 

3.  In  case  there   is  an   increase  in  the  organization,   the  percentage  of 

quitters  to  the  average  standing  pay  roll  should  be  taken.  In  the 
first  case  the  amount  by  which  the  number  of  quitters  exceeds 
the  number  of  new  employees  accounts  for  the  reduction.  In  the 
second  case  the  amount  by  which  the  new  employees  exceed  the 
quitters  accounts  for  the  increase. 

II.  VarialDles   in   the  cost   of   turnover: 

I.  Cost  varies  by  classes  of  skill   of  employees  hired — 

A.   Highly  skilled,  all-round  machinists  or  master   workmen — 

(a)  Require  little   instruction. 

(b)  Are  easy  on  machines. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        289 

(c)  Are   economical  with  supplies. 

(d)  Soon   reach   normal   output. 

(e)  Scrap    minimum    of    product. 

B.  Semiskilled   men — "operatives" — who   have   operated   some    one 

or    two   machines   just   long   enough    to   make   production    on 
those   machines — 

(a)  Require  instructions  on  new  jobs. 

(b)  Are  harder  on  machines. 

(c)  Are    careless    with   supplies. 

(d)  Do   not  soon   reach  normal   output. 

(e)  Have   high    scrap    average. 

C.  Unskilled  operatives — 

(a)  Require   still   more   instruction. 

(b)  Are  deadly  on  machines. 

(c)  Are  wasteful  of  supplies. 

(d)  May  never  reach  normal   output. 

(e)  Scrap  as  much  as  they  produce. 

D.  Laborers — 

(a)  Require  little  instruction  and  get   less. 

(b)  Don't  use  machines. 

(c)  Can't  waste  many  supplies. 

(d)  Have  short  learning  periods. 

(e)  Scrap    nothing. 

E.  Clerks  — 

(a)  Require   as  much   instruction   as   "B." 

(b)  Are  about  as  hard  on  machines  as  "B." 

(c)  Use  cheaper   supplies. 

(d)  Take  as  long  as  "B"  to  reach  output  but  cost  less  per  unit. 

(e)  Use  no  product  and  hence  waste  none. 

(f)  Have  a  high  factor  of  expensive  errors. 

2.  Cost   results   will   vary  according   to   completeness   of   analysis.      We 

should  consider   the   following   items  :i 

A.  Cost  of  hiring,  the  only  item  which  has  a  tendency  to  go  up 
with  the  reduction  of  turnover,  because  it  is  the  only  factor 
on    a   "production"   basis. 

B.  Cost  of  instruction. 

C.  Cost  of  added  wear  and  tear  on  equipment  operated  by  green 
hands. 

D.  Cost  of  reduced  production  on  machines  operated  by  green 
hands,    when   payment   is   not   strictly  proportional   to   output. 

E.  Cost  of  excess  plant  necessary  to  make  up  production  lost  on 
machines  operated  by  green  hands. 

F.  Cost  of  scrap  over  and  above  the  amount  normal  for  ex- 
perienced  men. 

We  need  not  consider  reduced  sales  due  to  delay  in  schedules 
or  to  spoiled  work  because  they  are  too  difficult  to  deter- 
mine; neither  should  we  count  danger  of  strikes  due  to  agi- 
tation among  new  employees,  because  too  occasional.  But 
these  things  exist  and  should  be  considered,  as  showing  our 
other  cost  estimates  as  probably  conservative. 

3.  Cost   results   will   vary,   according  to   length    of   time   new   employees 

are  followed  up — 

A.  Hiring  does  not  vary  in  this  way. 

B.  Instruction   usually   is   limited   to   an   arbitrary   time — two    or 

three  days. 

C.  The   new    worker  probably   requires   around  three  months   to 

get  familiar  with  machine  in  all  respects,  although  this  esti- 
mate remains  to  be  proved. 

D.  Up  to  probably  four  weeks  the  new  employee  improves  rapid- 
ly. It  takes  him  probably  six  months  to  "hit  his  best  stride." 
Not   so,  however,   with  laborers. 

E.  The  excess  plant  requirement  is  proportional  to  reduced  pro- 

duction. 

1  Cost  of  accidents  incurred  by  new  employees  should  be  considered  in 
each  of  the  places  in  the  outline  where  the  following  classification  is  used. 


290  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

F.  Excess   scrap   probably   persists   for   a  longer   period   than    re- 

duced   production,    because    most    men    acquire    speed    more 
quickly   than   accuracy. 

G.  Waste   keeps   pace   largely   with   scrap. 

4.   Cost   varies  according  to  the  type  and  value  of  the  equipment  used 

by  ne\y  employees,   with  respect  to  cost   of — 

A.  Hiring — not  so. 

B.  Instruction — true    to    a   large   extent. 

C.  Wear   and  tear — to   very  large  extent. 

D.  Reduced    production — holds    true. 

E.  Excess  plant  requirement — especially  and  chiefly. 

F.  Scrap — to     some     extent. 

G.  Waste — to   some   extent. 

Among  the  different  classes  of  employees  this  variation   is  sig- 
nificant,   as    follows: 

Class  A.     This   is   important,   because   they   are   likely   to   use   ex- 
pensive   equipment. 

Class  B.     Important   for  same  reason. 

Class  C.     Important 

Class   D.     Does   not  hold   true   of   laborers,   who   use   little   equip- 
ment. 

Class   E.     Holds  true  in  less  degree. 
III.     Figuring  total  costs,  while  taking  the  above  variables  into  account: 

1.  To    figure    cost    of   hiring — itemize — 

A.  Standard  cost  per  employee  for  physical  examination.    Spread 
cost   of  total  number  examined  over   total   number  hired. 

B.  Membership     in     employers'     associations     and     other     labor 
bureaus.      Spread  annual   cost  over   number  hired. 

C.  Clerical    help    and    all    other    salaries    of    employment    depart- 

ment. Figure  total  number  of  men  on  "live"  record  during 
the  year,  whether  employed  or  not.  Subtract  the  total  for 
average  standing  pay  roll.  The  ratio  of  remainder  of  names 
to  the  total  on  "live"  record  is  proportion  of  cost  of  salaries 
which  should  be  spread  over  the  number  of  men  hired. 
This  subtraction  of  a  proportion  for  employees  on  the  pay  roll 
is  made  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  there  would  need  to 
be  clerical  work  of  this  sort,  even  if  there  were  no  hiring 
at   all. 

D.  Cost   of  advertising,   trips   out   of   town   for   men,   office   rent, 
new  badges,  and   miscellaneous,  divided   among  number  hired. 

E.  Cost     of     printing     prorated     over     number     hired     according 
to   "C." 

These  items  do  not  vary  according  to  length  of  service  or  class 
of  skill  or  types  of  equipment  used. 

2.  Instruction — itemize — 

A.  Time   of  foremen   spent   with   new  employees. 

B.  Time   of  workmen    detailed   as   instructors   for   handling   ma- 
chines. 

C.  Time    of  "time   study"    men    acting   as    occasional    instructors 

for  handling  work. 
Figure  separately  for  an  average  month  for  each  class  of  skill 
"A"  to   "E." 

3    Wear    and    tear — itemize — 

A.  Time  of  maintenance  department  on  machines  operated  by 
new  employees  minus  a  constant  factor  of  time  for  ex- 
perienced employees.  (Obtain  this  factor  by  recording  for 
a  sufficient  period  the  time  of  maintenance  men  spent  on 
the  average  with  a  selected  group  of  employees  of  all  lengths 
of  service  over  one  year). 
I  B.     Cost   of   materials  used   for  repairs   on  machines   operated  by 

new   employees,   minus   a   constant   factor   of   material,    for   all 
employees.      (Obtain    as   in    "A.") 
The    above    necessitates    at    least    temporary    use    of    job    tickets 
for  maintenance   men,   with  space  on  tickets   to   indicate   time 
spent   with    new   and    old   employees. 

C.     Breakage  and  wear  on  tools,  dies,  and  jigs  used  by  new  em- 
ployees, minus  a  constant  factor  for  experienced  employees. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        291 

D.  Constant  factor  of  cost  per  man  for  premature  depreciation 
of  machinery.  This  can  only  be  guessed  at,  but  it  may  be 
more  closely  approximated  by  a  genuine  research,  which 
would — 

(a)  Take   certain   typical   machines   now   worn   out. 

(b)  Find  out  best  records  of  wear  from  the  makers. 

(c)  Compare   average   wear   in   given   plant;     and 

(d)  Spread   the   difference   over   the   number   of   new   men   who 

worked    on    those    machines    during 

(e)  The    actual   life    of   those   machines.      Once   determined   by 

careful  studies  and  compared  with  the  results  of  other 
students,  this  could  be  made  a  constant  factor  for  each 
plant,  or  each  type  of  machinery,  relative  to  complexity 
of  design.  Figure  all  but  the  last  point  for  average 
month   for   all   classes   of  skill,   save   laborers. 

4.   Labor  cost  of  reduced  production.      This  can  not  be  figured  exactly, 
but   can   be,   approximately,   by   averaging   the   results   obtained   by 
looking  at  the  matter  from  several  points  of  view.     I  suggest  the 
following — 
A.     First    alternative — 

(a)  Determine  by   time   study   and   standard   practice   the   ideal 

capacity  of  each  machine  and  production  center  in 
terms  of  production  per  hour. 

(b)  In    order    not    to    charge    up    to    turnover    any   loss    of   pro- 

duction  due  to  defects   in  scheduling,   record  the  actual 
man-hours    worked     on     each    production    center    for    a 
given  period  and,  thus, 
(c")    Arrive  at  total   ideal  output  for  that  number  of  hours. 

(d)  The   difference  between   this   and   the   actual   output   is  the 

loss   due   to   turnover,  and   may  be 

(e)  Prorated    to    the    number    of    men    hired    for    the    period. 

Theoretically,  workers  have  been  paid  for  ideal  output. 
Price  this  reduced  production,  therefore,  at  cost  of  de- 
partments in  question  of  direct  and  indirect  labor.  All 
other  items  of  cost  are  elsewhere  provided  for,  under 
"waste,"  "excess  plant,"  "wear  and  tear,"  etc.  If  a 
piece  price  is  paid,  however,  new  workers,  like  old, 
being  paid  only  for  work  actually  done,  only  the  cost 
of  indirect  labor  should  be  assessed  against  the  labor 
cost  of  reduced  production.  The  above  method  is  not 
strictly  true,  but  if  the  ideal  machine  capacity  is  based 
upon  the  observed  output  of  experienced  operatives,  it 
will  be  sufficiently  correct. 
B       Second   alternative — 

(a)  Select  a   number  of  machines   worked  by  new  men   and  an 

equal  number  of  like  machines  worked  by  men  over  a 
year    in    service. 

(b)  Record  the  production  of  each  group  until  the  total  of  the 

new  men   reaches  the  total   of  the  old  men. 

(c)  Time    required    to    reach    this    may    be    taken    as    average 

learning   time. 

(d)  Total    difference    of    production    during    this    time    may    be 

spread  over  the  number  observed  and  the  average  taken 
as   the  loss   for  the  average   man  hired. 

(e)  Foi     men    dropping    out    of    the    groups    while    under    con- 

sideration    substitute     other     men     with     approximately 
equal  production   and   equal  length  of  service.      Separate 
observations    should    be    taken    for    each    class    of    skill — 
"A,"   "B."   "C,"  and   "E." 
C.     Laborers  can  be  figured  in  about  the  same  way,  namely— 

(a)  Take    a    set    quantity    of    trucking,    etc. 

(b)  Compare  the  number  of  new  as  against  the  number  of  old 

men    required    to    do    this   fixed   quantity. 

(c)  Drop   men   as   they   improve   so   as   to  keep   output   constant. 

(d)  Until    number    in    first    gang   equals    number    in    old.      This 

gives  the  learning  time  for  laborers,  and  the  loss  of 
production  of  average  new  laborer. 


292  SELECTED ,  ARTICLES 

5.  Excess  plant  cost  of  reduced  production — 

A.  Assume  that  the  plant  investment  required  under  present 
conditions  will  bear  the  same  ratio  to  total  investment  in 
plant  which  would  be  needed  if  there  were  no  turnover,  as 
the  production  which  would  be  possible  with  the  present 
equipment  operated  by  all  experienced  men  would  bear  to 
the  actual  output.  In  other  words,  if  your  reduced  produc- 
tion is  20  per  cent  your  excess  plant  required  is  20  per  cent. 
This  is  stated  as   axiomatic. 

B.  Find  the  present   inventory. 

C.  Figure  on   the  basis  of  your  present  loss   of  production  how 

much  less  equipment  would  be  necessary  without  labor  turn- 
over. 

D.  The  difference  may  be  used  as  basis  for  figuring  the  amounts 
of — 

(a)  Interest   on  capital. 

(b)  Depreciation. 

(c)  Power. 

(d)  Insurance. 

(e)  Rent. 

(f)  Repairs. 

Which   are    due    to   turnover. 

E.  Figure  by  shops,  as  if  separate  plants,  for  each  class  of  skill 

using  equipment  and  spread  cost  over  turnover  in  those 
classes. 
Excess  plant  cost  and  labor  cost  of  reduced  production  should 
be  figured  separately  and  then  added  together,  instead  of 
prorating  excess  plant  cost  as  a  burden  on  the  labor  cost  of 
lost  production,  because  the  burden  is  not  the  same  man  for 
man,  and  department  for  department.  Furthermore,  in  de- 
partments where  wages  are  in  proportion  to  efficiency,  "ex- 
cess plant"  costs  plus  excess  supervision  constitute  the  sum 
lost  by   slow   production. 

6.  Spoiled  work — 

A.  Select  at  random  two  equal  groups  of  men  representing 
evenly  all  grades  of  skill  save  laborers,  one  a  group  of  new 
employees,  the  other,   of   men   over   one  year  in  service. 

B.  Compare  total  scrap  losses  for  each  group  until  approximate- 
ly even  per  day  period  for  some  time.  The  point  at  which 
it  begins  to  be  even  may  be  taken  as  showing  the  average 
time   required  to   reach  normal  scrap  record. 

C.  Subtract    total   scrap   made   by   old   men    from   total    made   by 

new  men  and  divide  the  difference  by  the  number  in  a  group 
to   get   total    scrap   per   new   employee   hired. 

7.  Waste — 

Figure  the  same  as  scrap.     The  item  includes  waste  of  oil,  cutting 
compound,   compressed   air,   etc. 


MEDICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  WORKERS 

PHYSICAL  EXAMINATION   OF  WORKERS' 

The  spirit  of  individualism  is  rapidly  passing  out  of  modern 
society,  to  be  replaced  by  an  increasing  solicitude  for  methods 
which  aim  at  greater  cooperation  between  various  social  units, 
the  better  conservation  of  human  life  and  health,  and  an  in- 
creasing recognition  of  the  importance  of  the  individual  to  so- 
ciety at  large. 

We  are  gradually  coming  to  a  realization  that  continued  in- 
dustrial prosperity  is  not  dependent,  in  the  last  analysis,  upon 
the  tons  of  raw  material  consumed  nor  the  money  value  of  the 
finished  product,  but  upon  the  physical  efficiency  of  the  worker 
and  the  length  of  the  period  of  his  economic  productivity. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  value  of  the  individual  to 
society  is  conditioned  more  by  the  length  of  this  period  than  any 
other  factor.  The  stage  of  growth  and  development  from  in- 
fancy to  manhood  is  at  a  heavy,  though  rightful,  cost  to  society, 
a  cost  which  is  becoming  larger  from  year  to  year,  because  of 
the  increased  pains  taken  and  skill  exercised  to  insure  the  greater 
efficiency  of  the  finished  human  product  and  the  longer  time 
devoted  to  this  end.  During  his  years  of  economic  productivity 
the  individual  repays  this  debt  to  society. 

It  is  evident  that  the  returns  from  these  human  investments 
are  variable.  Some  return  manifold  the  cost,  others  increase 
greatly  this  debt.  The  most  important  factor  determining  the 
economic  return  the  social  unit  shall  make  consists  in  the  condi- 
tion of  his  health.  The  maintenance  of  a  continuous  state  of 
physical  efficiency  is  the  best  guarantee  that  each  social  unit 
shall  easily  and  abundantly  discharge  his  debt  to  society. 

Few  of  us  have  any  accurate  realization  of  the  enormous 
losses  caused  each  year  in  all  industries  by  the  ill  health  of 
workers,  for  the  most  part  due  to  preventable  causes.  In  a  re- 
cent address  by  Dr.  L.  K.  Frankel,  it  appears  from  the  experi- 

1  By  J.  W.  Schereschewsky.  Surgeon,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service. 
Reprint.     Public  Health  Reports.     Vol.  29.     No.  47.     November  20,  19 14. 


294  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

ence  of  the  local  sick  benefit  societies  of  Leipsic  and  vicinity  in 
Germany,  that  the  annual  loss  from  sickness  per  loo  male  work- 
ers in  83  occupations  was  910  days,  varying  from  395  days  in 
barbers  and  personal  attendants  to  1,574  days  in  cardboard  and 
paper-box  factory  workers.  In  female  workers  the  loss  was  still 
higher,  varying  from  560  days  in  bookkeepers  and  office  em- 
ployees to  1,978  days  in  workers  in  skins,  hides,  and  other  animal 
refuse,  the  average  being  1,138  days. 

In  1910  the  First  National  Conference  on  Industrial  Diseases  ^ 
addressed  a  memorial  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  it  was  stated  that  there  occurred  annually  in  the  United 
States  13,400,000  cases  of  illness  among  workers,  involving  an 
economic  yearly  loss  of  nearly  three-fourths  of  a  billion  dollars. 

As  a  large  part  of  this  huge  loss  is  preventable,  it  is  clear 
that  society  is  not  fostering  foolish  fads  nor  indulging  in  vague 
humanitarianism  by  displaying  active  interest  in  the  physical  con- 
dition of  its  units.  It  is  only  natural,  therefore,  that  the  question 
of  the  physical  examination  of  workers  (or  medical  supervision, 
as  I  prefer  to  term  it)  should  have  attracted  increasing  attention 
in  recent  years. 

It  is  my  intention  to  discuss  briefly  the  purpose  of  such  med- 
ical supervision,  its  value,  and  the  results  we  may  expect  in  the 
future  from  the  practical  application  of  the  useful  data  it  can  be 
made  to  provide. 

We  are,  of  course,  well  aware  of  the  specific  reasons  for  the 
introduction  of  the  physical  examination  of  workers  in  this 
country.  The  enactment  of  legislation  for  the  compensation  of 
workmen  for  injuries  has  rendered  such  examination  advisable 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  physical  condition  of  work- 
men upon  entering  employment,  so  that  unjust  claims  for  acci- 
dental injuries  might  be  avoided,  and  the  hazard  to  fellow 
employees,  arising  from  physical  defects  in  workers,  reduced. 

Begun  on  this  basis,  we  are  rapidly  coming  to  the  realization 
of  the  great  value  of  such  medical  supervision  in  a  larger  sense. 
The  beneficent  results  of  the  widespread  campaign  for  safety 
have  focused  the  attention  of  the  industrial  world  in  a  way, 
possible  in  no  other  manner,  to  the  very  great  importance  of 
health  in  the  abstract.  We  are  beginning  fully  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  very  p-inciple  which  renders  it  expedient  to  safe- 

1  Dr.  W.  Gilm.in  Thompson:  The  Occupational  Diseases  of  Modern 
Life.  Read  before  >ie  annual  meeting  of  the  Cumberland  County  Medical 
Society,  Portland,     tc.,  December  8,   191 1,  p.  2. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        295 

guard  health  and  hmb,  renders  it  equally  expedient,  by  extension, 
to  safeguard  the  health  of  the  worker  from  all  standpoints. 

In  accordance  with  this  principle,  large  industrial  plants 
everywhere  are  beginning  voluntarily  to  study  industrial  sanita- 
tion and  to  extend  measures,  originally  intended  solely  to  reduce 
accidents,  so  that  they  also  serve  to  diminish  the  incidence  of 
disease.  They  are  realizing  that,  as  it  is  their  duty  to  minimize 
the  effects  of  ignorance  and  carelessness  in  producing  accidents, 
so,  in  similar  fashion,  the  operation  of  these  causes  in  the  pro- 
duction of  sickness  should  be  reduced,  as  a  person  who  is  ill 
through  carelessness  or  lack  of  knowledge  is  just  as  much  a  de- 
pendent upon  society  as  one  in  the  same  condition  from  injury. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  a  discussion  of  the  aims  of  such  med- 
ical supervision.  The  goal  to  which  we  are  evidently  tending  is 
to  render  all  industries  "safe."  While  certain  hazards  inherent 
in  industries  must  necessarily  be  encountered,  our  object  is  to 
minimize  their  detrimental  influence.  In  other  words,  we  are 
subscribing  to  the  principle  that,  per  se,  an  industry  ought  not  to 
exercise  an  unhealthful  influence  upon  the  worker;  that  occupa- 
tion in  that  industry  ought  not  to  curtail  the  average  period  of 
economic  productivity. 

Suppose  that  all  precautions  have  been  taken  to  prevent  the 
operation  of  injurious  factors  in  a  given  industry;  suppose  that 
due  care  has  been  given  to  the  sanitation  of  workrooms ;  sup- 
pose that  the  occurrence  of  accidents  has  been  reduced  to  a 
minimum  by  proper  rules,  the  safeguarding  of  machinery,  and 
the  education  of  the  workers,  have  we  done  all  we  can  or  ought 
to  do  in  the  way  of  guarding  the  industry  from  economic  loss 
through  disabilities?  The  answer  is,  "No."  We  will  achieve 
results  far  in  advance  of  anything  accomplished  by  the  methods 
above  described  if,  in  addition  to  this,  a  system  of  medical  super- 
vision with  periodic  physical  examinations  of  all  employees  be 
introduced.  There  can  be  no  question  that  such  examinations 
constitute  the  most  efficient  means  at  our  command  for  main- 
taining the  individual  in  a  continuous  state  of  physical  efficiency. 

As  a  general  proposition  such  medical  supervision  should  have 
for  its  objects  the  following  points: 

1.  The  prevention  of  the  introduction,  and  the  control,  of 
communicable  diseases  among  workers. 

2.  The  detection  of  physical  defects  and  diseases  in  their 
incipiency  among  workers. 


296  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

3.  The  adaptation  of  the  work  to  the  physical  condition  of 
the  worker. 

4.  Advice  to  the  worker  as  to  his  own  physical  condition. 

5.  A  careful  record  of  the  actual  physical  condition  of  work- 
ers. 

6.  The  education  of  workers. 

7.  The  prevention  of  occupational  diseases. 

We  will  now  take  up  each  one  of  these  points  for  discussion. 

1.  The  control  of  communicable  diseases. — It  would  seem  a 
matter  of  simple  justice  that  the  worker  should  be  protected 
from  exposure  to  infection  from  coworkers  suffering  from  com- 
municable diseases. 

As  an  example  of  this,  the  Public  Health  Service  was  re- 
cently called  upon  to  investigate,  in  a  large  steel  plant,  an  out- 
break of  trachoma,  which,  as  you  know,  is  a  contagious  disease 
of  the  eyes,  frequently  resulting  in  great  impairment  or  loss  of 
vision.  The  situation  was  found  to  be  so  acute  that  the  com- 
pany took  immediate  steps  at  large  expense  to  eradicate  the  dis- 
order, in  view  of  the  imminent  spread  of  the  disease  throughout 
the  factory  personnel.  A  system  of  medical  supervision,  which, 
I  am  given  to  understand,  this  company  has  now  adopted,  would, 
in  the  first  instance,  have  prevented  this  outbreak. 

2.  The  detection  of  incipient  defects  and  diseases. — Many  in- 
dividuals have  their  efficiency  much  impaired  because  they  are 
suffering  from  some  easily  correctible  defect  the  existence  of 
which  was  unsuspected  by  them.  Others  are  suffering  from 
diseases,  such  as  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  in  an  incipient  condi- 
tion which,  if  neglected,  would  make  such  advances  as  to  pre- 
clude subsequent  recovery.  Medical  supervision  creates  an  op- 
portunity for  detecting  such  defects  and  diseases  before  the 
damage  wrought  is  irreparable  and  of  advising  the  worker  of 
the  steps  which  should  be  taken  for  their  improvement  or  cor- 
rection. 

3.  Adaptation  of  the  work  to  the  physical  condition  of  the 
worker. — It  is  evident  that  some  classes  of  work  require  certain 
physical  qualifications  or  the  absence  of  certain  physical  defects 
or  diseases.  It  is  obvious  that  persons  suffering  from  hernia 
should  not  work  at  occupations  which  require  the  lifting  of 
heavy  objects,  persons  suffering  from  nephritis  should  not  en- 
gage in  occupations  involving  great  fluctuations  in  temperature 
or  exposure  to  cold  and  dampness,  nor  should  persons  suffering 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        297 

from  cardiac  disease  be  placed  in  situations  where  physical  ex- 
ertion is  required,  or  where  a  sudden  vertigo  may  endanger  the 
individual  or  his  coworkers.  Medical  supervision  gives  the 
needed  opportunity  of  adjusting  the  duties  of  the  individual  to 
his  physical  capacities,  so  that  the  productiveness  of  the  in- 
dividual remains  at  a  maximum  compatible  with  his  physical 
condition,  without  his  being  endangered  or  causing  injury  to 
others  by  reason  of  his  infirmities. 

4.  Advice  to  the  worker. — The  great  opportunity  which 
medical  supervision  affords  to  advise  workers  concerning  their 
physical  condition  is  an  advantage  which  can  not  be  over- 
estimated. The  helpful  interest  thus  displayed  on  the  part  of 
the  employer  toward  the  physical  condition  of  workers  awakens 
that  spirit  of  cooperation  on  their  part  which  is  necessary  to  the 
maintenance  of  "safe"  industrial  conditions.  Such,  at  least,  has 
been  the  experience  of  plants  in  which  medical  supervision  has 
been  put  in  operation.  In  addition  to  this,  workers  should  be 
encouraged  to  visit  the  plant  hospital  whenever  they  feel  sick, 
so  that,  on  the  one  hand,  if  the  symptoms  are  serious,  the  worker 
can  be  advised  to  stop  work  before  further  injury  has  occurred, 
or,  on  the  other,  if  the  ailment  be  trivial,  a  minimum  of  time  will 
be  lost  from  work. 

5.  Record  of  the  physical  condition. — For  proper  medical 
supervision  it  is  essential  that  careful  records  of  the  physical 
condition  of  workers  be  kept.  In  the  first  place  a  record  of  the 
physical  examination  serves,  on  the  one  hand,  to  safeguard 
against  unjust  claims  for  compensation  in  the  case  of  injuries, 
while,  on  the  other,  a  record  of  physical  fitness  will  help  to  sub- 
stantiate just  claims  for  such  injuries.  In  the  second,  such  rec- 
ords constitute  most  valuable  data  for  studying  the  average 
physique  and  the  condition  of  the  health  of  workers  in  any  in- 
dustry. 

6.  Education  of  the  workers. — We  are  familiar  with  the  ex- 
cellent work  already  accomplished  in  the  prevention  of  accidents 
by  means  of  the  education  of  workers.  A  similar  campaign  in 
teaching  them  how  to  keep  well  should  have  like  effects  in  re- 
ducing the  number  of  cases  of  illness. 

7.  The  prevention  of  occupational  diseases. — Systematic  med- 
ical supervision  is  a  most  excellent  agent  to  prevent  the  occur- 
rence of  occupational  diseases  among  workers.  When  such  dis- 
eases are   found  in  a  plant  the  first  cases  will  be  detected  by 


298  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

the  medical  supervision,  so  that  the  sanitary  defects  responsible 
for  them  may  be  readily  corrected.  The  supervision  would  serve 
also  as  a  constant  check  upon  the  efficiency  of  the  methods  in- 
troduced to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  occupational  diseases. 

Type  of  Physical  Examination  Contemplated 

The  importance  of  making  physical  examinations  thorough 
can  not  be  overemphasized.  A  reliable  record  of  the  physical 
condition  can  not  be  obtained  by  a  hastj'  and  superficial  exam- 
ination; the  data  so  collected  are  of  no  especial  value,  nor  can 
incipient  disease  be  detected  by  such  methods.  What  is  especially 
needed  is  a  standard  form  of  physical  examination,  so  that  the 
data  obtained  in  this  manner  for  various  industries  may  be  com- 
parable. 

Workers  found  suffering  from  phj'sical  defects  and  diseases 
should  be  held  under  observation  and  requested  to  report  back 
for  reexamination,  so  that  advice  as  to  their  condition  may  be 
given,  as  well  as  a  watch  kept  upon  their  progress  to  recovery. 
It  is  also  earnestly  recommended  that  periodic  reexaminations  be 
made  of  all  workers,  as  this  is  the  best  way  of  insuring  a  con- 
tinuous state  of  health  on  their  part. 

It  is  evident  from  the  foregoing  that  the  scheme  of  medical 
supervision  contemplated  in  this  paper  is  extensive  and  would 
entail  considerable  expense  to  put  in  operation.  The  question 
which  inevitably  arises  is:  "Will  it  pay?"  The  answer  must  be 
unhesitatingly  in  the  affirmative.  The  experience  of  all  plants  in 
which  such  systems  have  been  put  i;i  operation  is  so  satisfactory 
that  no  doubt  has  arisen  in  the  minds  of  their  officers  that  med- 
ical supervision  does  pay  in  increased  efficiency  of  the  working 
force,  greater  content  of  the  workers,  greater  cooperation  be- 
tween employers  and  employed,  and  in  greatly  diminished  loss 
of  time  and  suffering  from  preventable  disease. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  question  of  medical  super- 
vision upon  which  I  have  not  as  yet  dwelt.  We  are  in  need  of 
more  exact  information  in  order  to  render  our  industries  "safe" 
from  a  health  standpoint.  While  it  is  manifestly  wasteful  to 
introduce  superfluous  precautions  in  industries,  it  is  equally  a 
part  of  social  justice  to  see  that  such  precautions  be  adequate. 
The  physical  examination  of  workers  gives  us  information, 
which  can  be  so  well  obtained  in  no  other  way,  as  to  the  diseases 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  299 

and  defects  peculiar  to  workers  and  the  specific  influence  of  oc- 
cupations upon  the  heaUh  of  the  individual. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  point:  At  present  the  Federal  Public 
Health  Service  is  entering  upon  a  study  of  diseases  of  occupa- 
tion. The  first  and  most  important  question  in  the  consideration 
of  this  subject  is,  naturally,  What  is  the  effect  of  different  occu- 
pations upon  the  health  of  workers?  The  service  is  just  con- 
cluding an  investigation,  undertaken  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
Joint  Board  of  Sanitary  Control  of  the  Garment  Trades,  in  New 
York,  as  to  the  influence  of  this  industry  upon  the  health  of  its 
workers.  The  most  important  line  of  study  which  the  service 
pursued  in  this  investigation  consisted  of  careful  physical  exam- 
ination of  several  thousand  garment  workers.  As  a  result  of 
these  physical  examinations  the  Public  Health  Service  is  now  in 
possession  of  rather  precise  data,  obtainable  so  well  in  no  other 
way,  as  to  the  effects  of  this  occupation  upon  the  health  of  the 
individual,  the  average  physical  condition  of  garment  workers, 
the  types  of  diseases,  and  disabilities  from  which  the  workers 
suffer.  The  service  is,  therefore,  in  a  position  to  formulate  use- 
ful recommendations  for  the  sanitary  improvement  of  this  in- 
dustry. These  studies  the  service  hopes  to  extend  to  other 
industries  as  facilities  permit. 

We  see  from  the  foregoing  the  great  value  of  physical  exam- 
inations of  workers  in  obtaining  accurate  data  as  to  the  effects 
of  industries  upon  health.  The  general  introduction  of  systems 
of  medical  supervision,  with  periodic  physical  examinations  in 
various  industries,  will  result  in  the  collection  of  a  body  of  sim- 
ilar data,  which,  when  studied,  will  form  a  logical  basis  for  prac- 
tical recommendations  to  make  all  such  industries  safe  from  a 
health  standpoint.  In  other  words,  the  medical  supervision  of 
workers,  if  generally  introduced,  will  point  clearly  the  way  to 
enable  each  industry  to  sanitate  itself.  When  we  have  reached 
this  point  it  will  be  found  that  the  enormous  economic  loss 
caused  in  industries  by  preventable  diseases  and  disabilities  will 
have  largely  disappeared. 


THE  NEW  FOREMANSHIP 

RELATION  OF  FOREMEN  TO  THE 
WORKING  FORCE  ^ 

It  is  a  very  impressive  circumstance  to  witness  the  be- 
ginning of  a  larger  scheme  of  co-operative  management  than 
has  heretofore  obtained.  It  is  also  good  to  reflect  that  this 
larger  share,  this  broadening  of  the  basis  of  management, 
comes  not  as  a  result  of  any  friction  or  general  disaffection, 
or  unrest,  or  misunderstanding,  but  comes  rather  in  the  di- 
rection of  natural,  unforced  progress. 

You  will  hear  more  and  more,  especially  if  you  read  the 
literature  of  management,  if  you  follow  the  technical  maga- 
zines, indeed  if  you  follow  the  newspapers  and  popular  periodi- 
cals, you  will  hear  more  and  more  the  expression,  "human  en- 
gineering." 

Now,  what  is  "human  engineering?"  Let  me  read  a  brief 
statement  by  that  greatest  genius  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
Mr.  Thomas  A.  Edison,  who  wrote  me  a  letter  a  few  months 
ago  and  that  letter  has  been  printed  on  the  cover  of  the  Janu- 
ary number  of  the  Engineering  Magazine,  which  is  now  called 
"Industrial  Management,"  a  change  of  name,  by  the  way,  which 
is  significant  too  of  the  fact  that  engineering,  and  production, 
are  essentially  problems  of  management,  of  the  handling  of 
human  beings.     Mr.  Edison  wrote : 

"Problems  in  human  engineering  will  receive  during  the 
coming  j-ears  the  same  genius  and  attention  which  the  nine- 
teenth century  gave  to  the  more  material  forms  of  engineering. 

"We  have  laid  good  foundations  for  industrial  prosperity, 
now  we  want  to  assure  the  happiness  and  growth  of  the  workers 
through  vocational  education,  vocational  guidance,  and  wisely 
managed  employment  departments.  A  great  field  for  industrial 
experimentation  and  statesmanship  is  opening  up." 

*  From  article  by  Meyer  Bloomfield,  containing  the  substance  of  a  talk 
to  the  foremen  of  the  International  Harvester  Co.,  Chicago.  Industrial 
Management.     53:340-9.     June,   19 17. 


302  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Mr.  Edison  not  only  believes  in  liuinan  engineering,  bnt  I 
have  seen  on  his  personal  desk  practically  everything  printed  in 
this  country  for  a  year  on  the  subject  of  handling  help.  Within 
a  year  Mr.  Edison  and  his  associates  interested  in  his  fourteen 
plants,  have  re-organizcd  their  labor  departments,  they  have  es- 
tablished a  clearing  house  and  are  beginning  to  effect  that  same 
kind  of  team  play  to  which  Air.  Perkins  invited  your  attention 
tonight. 

What  is  happening  at  West  Orange,  what  is  happening  here 
is  being  duplicated  all  over  the  country,  not  only  in  advanced 
establishments  like  this  but  in  backward  establishments  like 
some  of  the  textile  mills  of  the  South  and  of  my  own  state  of 
Massachusetts.  Last  month  two  hundred  employers  came  to 
our  monthly  meeting  in  Boston,  where  we  talked  things  over  as 
we  are  doing  tonight;  I  suppose  fully  twenty  per  cent  of  them 
came  from  the  textile  mills  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut  and  New  York.  Many  of  them  come  every 
month  to  the  monthly  meeting  of  our  executives  who  have  to 
handle  help  or  are  in  some  way  responsible  for  the  working 
forces.  That  proves  our  chairman's  remark  that  it  is  not  mere 
sentimental  enthusiasm  we  want  to  air  on  Washington's  birth- 
day, but  that  here  is  a  very  real  problem  in  business  manage- 
ment, here  is  something  which  we  are  forced  by  the  spirit  of 
the  times  to  understand,  to  co-operate  with  and  to  build  on. 

Now  the  first  great  pressure  on  every  executive,  and  I  re- 
gard all  you  gentlemen  "as  executives,  even  if  you  have  only 
two  or  three  people  dependent  upon  you  for  instructions — the 
first  great  pressure  and  force  we  have  to  reckon  with  is  the 
fact  that  no  matter  how  backward,  how  crude,  how  ignorant, 
how  illiterate  arc  the  workers  and  aliens  and  employes  who 
come  to  your  shops,  yet  there  is  something  in  the  American 
life,  something  in  the  American  environment  which  puts  a  cer- 
tain civic  intelligence  and  sense  of  independence  among  the 
workers  which  every  executive  must  understand  and  co-operate 
with. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  and  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  end  in 
management  not  to  respect  the  efforts  of  each  fellow,  however 
crude  his  outward  appearance  may  be,  what  each  fellow  is  when 
he  is  at  his  best.  Men  often  show  one  side  in  one  relation  and 
another  side  in  another  relation.  I  have  been  for  some  fifteen 
years  pretty  busily  engaged  in  all  kinds  of  meditations  and  con- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        303 

ferences.  Often  I  would  hear  some  employer  say:  "Those 
people  are  just  wild  animals  (referring  to  his  partners  in  the 
business,   his   employes)  ;    they   are   just  wild   animals.  You 

don't  know  them.  I  know  them.  I  have  to  work  with  them 
every  day.  It  is  all  right  for  you  to  say  there  is  some  good 
in  them.  They  are  only  here  for  the  dollars,  why  should  I 
waste  any  time  on  them?"  Then  I  would  go  to  some  place 
where  the  men  gathered,  in  small  knots,  and  those  men  who 
might  be  picked  as  the  most  stupid  and  backward  men,  were 
sometimes  the  orators  of  the  occasion,  the  leaders.  Men  who 
have  been  pointed  out  as  hopeless  seemed  to  speak  in  a  way 
which  if  they  could  talk  to  the  management  in  the  same  way 
would  have  long  ago  brought  them  together  for  the  common 
good  of  the  business  as  a  whole. 

It  is  absolutely  vital  to  judge  men  accurately.  If  you 
haven't  had  a  chance  to  see  what  a  fellow  is  capable  of,  give  him 
the  benefit  of  the  doubt  and  make  up  your  mind  if  you  appeal 
to  something  good  in  him  he  will  meet  you  on  the  level  of  your 
appeal.  If  we  aim  to  meet  men  on  a  low  level  they  will  take 
us  just  on  as  low  a  level  as  we  wish  to  take  with  them.  It  is 
worth  while  straining  a  point  to  make  sure — availing  yourself 
of  the  law  of  averages  alone — that  the  more  men  see  the  best 
side  of  you  the  more  likely  they  are  to  give  you  their  best  side. 

It  is  a  fact  we  have  to  deal  with,  that  the  workers  in  this 
country,  whatever  their  inheritance,  are  being  educated  by  in- 
fluences of  the  street,  the  shop,  by  societies,  newspapers,  ma- 
gazines, and  many  of  them  are  doing  a  whole  lot  of  thinking. 
Now  it  is  up  to  us  to  keep  up  with  all  the  forces  that  are  edu- 
cating, that  are  training  and  influencing  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  men  who  work  with  us.  We  should  know  something  of 
what  they  read  so  we  may  read  the  same  thing.  We  should 
know  something  of  the  subjects  which  interest  them  so  we  may 
be  sure  there  is  not  too  great  a  gap  between  us  mentally  and 
the  men  who  work  with  us. 

Now  what  has  that  to  do  with  production?  We  have  a 
pretty  definite  job;  what  more  is  there  for  us  to  do?  The 
most  intelligent  executives  in  the  country  today  believe  that 
good  output,  good  organization,  establishment  spirit,  the  spirit 
of  give  and  take,  depend  on  seeing  a  man  is  something  more 
than  a  producing  machine.     Just  as  long  as  the  men  are  only 


304  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

"hands,"  and  only  machines,  we  are  sure  to  build  a  granite  wall 
between  them  and  ourselves. 

I  have  said  there  is  a  great  deal  of  education  going  on  among 
the  workers.  There  are  all  sorts  of  institutions,  libraries,  phi- 
lanthropies reaching  the  most  backward  of  the  masses,  par- 
ticularly in  great  industrial  centers  like  Chicago.  I  beg  all  the 
foremen  who  have  this  great  responsibilty  of  welding  together 
this  great  organization,  to  respect  the  processes  of  training 
going  on,  unconsciously  perhaps,  but  the  education  which  is 
actually  going  on  among  the  men,  deal  with  that  education, 
make  it  serve  the  welfare  of  the  organization  which  j^ou  are 
pledged  to  make  prosperous. 

Therefore  there  is  a  new  conception  of  management.  The 
old  idea  was  coercion,  threats,  bad  temper,  fear,  punishment. 
Beware  of  the  man  who  resorts  to  punishment  as  a  cure  for  a 
human  situations.     That  man  needs  treatment. 

The  foremost  efiiciency  engineers  in  the  country  who  began 
with  a  thoroughly  mechanical  idea  of  production,  now  agree 
with  me  when  I  say  that  one  of  the  biggest  factors  in  efficiency, 
let  alone  good  organization,  is  good  will.  The  good  will  of  the 
men  has  as  much  to  do  with  economy,  with  sound  methods,  with 
good  work,  with  savings,  with  eliminating  waste — good  will  has 
as  much  to  do  with  those  items  as  any  mechanical  device  which 
your  planning  department  may  impose. 

The  greatest  problem  therefore  for  every  executive  in  the 
room,  for  every  executive  in  the  United  States,  is  how  to  get  the 
good  will  of  the  fellows  that  work  with  you  in  your  department. 
Now,  how  are  you  going  to  get  this  good  will?  I  do  not  say 
you  haven't  it.  I  am  very  sure  many  of  you  have.  Perhaps  all 
of  you  have  that  good  will.  Very  good,  but  if  you  have  it  let 
us  face  the  question  of  how  to  keep  it. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  hear  a  discussion  of  why  men  in 
various  shops  leave  their  departments,  a  discussion  between  you 
foremen  of  why  some  of  your  men  get  their  discharges;  and 
the  reason  why  one  man  fails  under  one  executive  and  makes 
a  pronounced  success  under  another  executive.  These  occur- 
rences, the  reasons  for  these  occurrences,  are  facts  and  should 
be  more  and  more  recorded  in  a  good  record  of  management. 
It  is  poor  business  to  have  men  come  and  go,  it  gives  an  in- 
stitution a  black  eye  when  men  do  that,  it  gives  it  a  bad  repu- 
tation in  the  labor  market.     Tt  is  a  great  thing  for  an  organiza- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  305 

tioti  to  be  known  as  giving  a  fellow  every  chance  possible  to 
make  good,  to  be  known  as  not  permitting  any  man  from  the 
President  down  to  be  arbitrary  with  the  worker,  as  being  known 
that  nobody  is  allowed  to  take  an  unfair  advantage  of  the  weak- 
ness or  even  the  failures  of  any  individual  in  the  establishment. 

It  is  a  wonderful  reputation  to  have  and  there  is  no  force 
on  earth  which  could  stand  up  against  an  organization  every- 
one of  whose  executives  holds  himself  personally  responsible 
that  the  spirit  of  protection  for  every  individual  shall  be  alive 
and  exercised,  particularly  in  situations  which  test  the  temper 
and  try  the  patience.  When  things  go  right  the  virtues  are  a 
matter  of  course.  It  is  in  extreme  situations  when  the  real  test 
of  whether  the  right  spirit  is  at  work  shows  itself. 

This  seems  to  be  the  spirit.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  work 
with.  But  a  state  of  mind  will  not  accomplish  what  you  are 
after — what  you  do  may  make  a  wonderful  success  of  the  com- 
mon management  here.  Merely  a  desire  that  things  shall  be 
so,  and  forgetting  the  details,  will  not  effect  what  you  are  af- 
ter. A  great  many  managers  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
are  actually  getting  to  work  finding  out  how  to  build  up  good 
will  among  their  men.  Some  have  done  it  by  a  very  liberal  sug- 
gestion system.  Well,  that  in  itself  does  some  good,  but  it 
does  not  go  far  enough.  To  say  to  every  employe  that  those 
of  you  who  give  the  best  suggestions,  those  that  see  dangers 
and  propose  safety  precautions,  those  of  you  who  know  of 
friction  spots  and  tell  us  about  them,  will  be  rewarded,  that 
does  not  bring  very  much. 

One  thing  must  be  driven  out  of  every  organization  and  that 
is  the  poison  of  fear,  the  element  of  coercion.  Men  should 
come  to  you  and  give  you  their  confidences  because  you  deserve 
them,  because  they  are  your  friends  and  look  upon  you  as  the 
right  sort  of  a  guide.  I  have  been  through  some  of  the  in- 
structions personally  given  to  Captains  of  Companies  in  the 
army.  All  the  books  of  instruction  describe  the  Captain  as  a 
father  of  the  Company.  The  worst  crime  a  Captain  can  com- 
mit as  a  father  is  to  be  unfair  and  abuse  his  authority  in  re- 
lation to  the  privates.  The  privates  are  supposed  to  come  to 
him  with  all  their  hopes  and  ambitions,  their  woes.  That  is 
what  he  is  Captain  for.  He  is  supposed  to  show  those  human 
qualities,  he  is  the  father  of  the  Company. 

The  foreman  is  a  sort  of  father  of  that  Department.     The 


3o6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

President  and  other  executives  cannot  mix  with  all  the  men. 
You  arc  the  proxies  of  the  men  at  the  top.  You  are  the  men 
at  tlie  top  so  far  as  your  own  world  in  the  shop  is  concerned. 

But  this  hope,  this  plan,  this  spirit  of  the  Harvester  manage- 
ment will  all  go  up  like  smoke  unless  there  is  a  definite  plan 
of  communication  between  all  the  foremen  at  stated  intervals 
on  problems,  difficulties,  methods,  ways  of  exchanging  ex- 
periences on  getting  good  will,  on  establishing  the  desired  spirit, 
confidence,  interest,  steadiness,  in  the  w^orking  forces.  I  say 
this  not  because  I  think  you  suffer  seriously — I  think  you  are 
better  off  than  many  establishments  I  know  of — but  you  cannot 
stand  idle,  you  want  to  come  as  nearh'  to  a  lOO  per  cent  perfect 
organization  as  is  possible. 

I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  man  in  this  country  wise 
enough  to  come  here  and  say,  "Gentlemen,  here  is  something 
every  foreman  must  do.  Here  are  one  hundred  rules  for  you 
to  follow\"  There  is  no  patent  medicine  for  j^ou  to  take  that 
will  make  you  at  once  a  wonderful  executive.  Combined,  you 
know  more  of  what  ought  to  be  done  to  make  a  lOO  per  cent 
perfect  organization  than  any  single  human  being  in  the  world. 

My  excuse  for  being  here  at  all  and  taking  your  time  is  to 
make  you  believe  that  you  know  more  of  what  you  can  do  to 
make  a  loo  per  cent  perfect  organization  than  I  or  any  other 
one  individual  man  knows.  You  are  close  to  the  problem,  you 
know  whether  you  are  getting  the  sort  of  men  you  ought  to 
have,  and  if  you  do  not  get  them  is  it  the  fault  of  the  Labor 
Department,  is  it  the  fault  of  the  labor  market,  is  it  the  fault 
of  conditions,  is  it  bad  conditions  in  the  plant  the  reputation  of 
which  you  have  to  live  down,  is  there  a  pulling  dow^n  process 
among  the  men  because  of  errors  in  the  management?  You 
know  whether  you  get  the  cream  of  the  labor  market.  You 
know  whether  men  leave  you  for  trivial  reasons,  you  know 
whether  men  leave  you  through  misunderstandings  and  because 
of  avoidable  frictions.  You  know  all  these  things,  and  I  hope 
all  or  some  of  you  will  keep  on  digging  at  this  proposition  and 
build  up  the  efficiency  and  your  insight  as  to  the  reasons  for  the 
efficiency  or  inefficienc\'  of  this  great  Corporation ;  that  you  will 
learn  as  managers  of  men  to  put  down  in  black  and  white  for 
discussion  and  analysis  and  criticism  your  observations  on  these 
points,  and  thus  build  up  a  knowledge  of  the  situation  which 
can  be  analyzed  and   recorded  and  issued  as  the  by-laws  and 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        307 

policies  o£  the  International  Harvester  Companies  to  guide  and 
control  future  foremen,  future  managers,  the  superintendents 
as  well  as  future  employes. 

These  policies  can  best  be  built  up  by  the  combined  effort 
and  wisdom,  experience  and  thought  of  you  gentlemen  who  are 
in  the  most  strategic  positions  to  see  what  will  help  make  a 
solidified   organization. 

Now  to  do  that,  I  hope  you  will  later  on  have  some  medium 
of  communication,  whether  it  be  a  Shop  Organ,  weekly  or 
monthl}^  meetings,  a  system  of  letters  to  be  written  by  indi- 
vidual foremen  to  be  read  by  other  foremen,  or  some  other  sys- 
tem of  communications  from  individuals  to  groups,  so  these 
matters  may  be  thought  out ;  and  as  they  become  crystallized, 
become  adopted  by  3'our  consent  and  that  of  the  management 
as  the  planks  in  the  new  constitution  of  team  play,  of  friendship, 
of  modern  Twentieth  Century,  enlightened  personnel  control. 

One  question  that  bothers  ever}'  executive  and  it  is  almost 
the  first  question  that  suggests  itself  to  his  mind,  is  this :  Give 
us  authority  enough  and  we  will  get  the  good  will  and  the  or- 
ganization all  right.  If  j'ou  cripple  our  authority,  if  you 
monkey  with  our  prerogatives,  if  you  weaken  the  sense  of 
power  we  have  established  over  the  men,  then  good-bye  to  or- 
ganization.    Do  not  hold  us  responsible. 

I  ask  you  gentlemen  to  consider  very  carefully  at  your  lei- 
sure, if  you  have  any,  consider  very  carefuly  whether  you  can 
afford  at  the  present  day,  at  the  present  stage  of  industrial  de- 
velopment in  this  country,  whether  you  can  afford  to  think  of 
authority  only  as  the  key  to  control  of  working  men. 

I  venture  to  say  that  the  men  who  discover  or  have  dis- 
covered that  there  is  something  infinitely  more  potent  and  magi- 
cal and  effective  than  brute  force,  than  police  authority;  that 
the  managers  who  know  there  is  something  infinitely  more  im- 
portant and  that  is,  the  strength  of  their  own  fairness,  of  their 
own  personality,  of  their  own  devotion  to  their  men,  of  their 
own  freedom  from  mean  practices — men  who  have  caught  that 
idea  in  management  I  am  willing  to  bet  now  are  on  record 
as   successful  upbuilders  of  men  in   their  departments. 

A  foreman  is  not  there  merely  to  hold  men  down  and  keep 
their  noses  to  the  grindstone.  That  is  a  small  part  of  manage- 
ment. A  foreman  is  there  to  build  up  executives,  to  develop  all 
a  man  has  within  him  in  the  way  of  contribution  to  the  firm  he 


308  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

is  working  for.  I  have  seen  some  men  you  might  not  employ 
unless  you  had  had  a  great  deal  of  experience  with  human  na- 
ture, and  learned  not  to  judge  from  appearances;  I  have  seen 
men,  most  unpromising  material,  who  have  made  the  best  man- 
agers of  the  country.  I  know  one  of  the  men  at  the  head  of 
one  of  Mr.  Edison's  plants,  one  of  the  most  ungainly,  awkward, 
disreputable,  disheveled  looking  persons.  I  was  in  the  plant 
long  enough  to  find  out  that  the  men  in  his  department  would 
have  laid  down  their  lives  for  him.  During  that  very  time  Mr. 
Edison's  labor  supervisor  was  investigating  to  learn  why  so 
many  changes  were  taking  place  in  two  other  departments,  the 
managers  of  which  were  two  fine,  stalwart  looking  men,  but 
they  did  not  belong  in  this  age  at  all  as  controllers  of  men. 

There  is  something  in  one's  view  point,  in  your  outlook,  in 
what  you  think  of  men,  which  makes  or  spoils  the  possibility  of 
being  a  successful  up-builder  of  men.  Isn't  it  your  business  to 
make  your  men  earn  more  money,  to  make  them  more  produc- 
tive, so  they  can  be  better  off?  Aren't  you  really  partners  of 
the  men?  If  you  think  you  are  anything  else  you  are  wasting 
a  great  opportunity.  You  are  a  partner  of  the  men.  That  is 
why  you  are  called  foremen.  You  are  not  slave  drivers ;  you 
are  educators,  you  are  doing  work  of  instruction  all  the  time. 
Make  those  instructions  better  analyzed,  better  recorded,  and 
see  what  happens  between  you  and  your  men. 

Gentlemen,  you  are  educators  and  I  want  to  appeal  to  you 
on  the  ground  that  no  man  is  a  manager  who  is  not  at  the  same 
time  a  teacher  and  example. 

Your  chairman  referred  to  the  Americanization  of  the 
worker.  Very  often  a  foreman  is  the  first  example  of  Ameri- 
canism a  man  gets  a  chance  to  see  and  be  near  to  and  imitate. 
In  the  Packard  Company's  automobile  plants  there  is  the 
greatest  attention  given  to  tlie  making  foremen  help  in  the 
Americanization  of  the  employes.  They  help  them  get  natura- 
lized. Often  the  foremen  help  them  fill  out  their  first  papers. 
This  same  thing  is  true  in  plants  in  New  York  and  Boston. 
The  foremen  are  doing  in  the  first  instance  many  of  the  things 
that  we  used  to  think  the  Welfare  Departments  should  do.  I 
believe  the  foreman  is  a  natural  associate  of  the  Welfare  De- 
partment and  the  Labor  Department,  Educational  Department, 
Service  Department,  and  I  hope  it  will  be  possible  in  this  Com- 
pany to   have  more   and   more    foremen   act   as   informal   com- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  309 

mittees  of  assistants  and  advisors  to  all  these  specialized  de- 
partment, because  in  the  final  analysis  you  stand  between  the 
men  and  the  management.  The  foremen  are  the  interpreters 
of  the  Company  to  the  men,  and  of  the  men  to  the  Company. 

That  is  a  great  responsibility.  It  deserves  some  thought. 
It  deserves  a  good  deal  of  your  best  interest  and  attention.  It 
means  credit  to  you,  it  means  bringing  to  you  that  rarest  thing 
in  all  organizations — you  cannot  vv^eigh  it  or  describe  it — it  is 
known  as  esprit  de  corps,  the  spirit  of  the  organization. 

You  walk  in  one  establishment  and  believe  the  least  spark 
will  set  every  particle  flying  apart.  They  are  ready  for  an  ex- 
plosion. Go  into  another  establishment  and  you  know  no  hu- 
man force  can  disturb  the  relationship  between  the  men  and  the 
executive.  These  things  come  as  a  result  of  thought  and  con- 
ferences, between  you  men  who  have  the  say  over  the  bread 
and  butter  of  other  men,  have  the  say  of  what  they  shall  do 
and  when  they  shall  be  promoted  and  to  what  they  shall  be 
advanced. 

It  is  a  tremendous  responsibility  and  power  and  should  make 
a  man  pray  that  he  may  deserve  so  responsible  a  position,  and 
make  his  department  express  by  his  conduct  all  this  position 
involves. 

I  think  all  these  things  will  come.  I  have  seen  enough  of 
the  men  in  this  organization  to  believe  that  most  interesting  and 
important  events  will  follow  this  broader  phase  of  management 
in  the  Harvester  Works.  Give  the  men  who  work  for  you 
every  chance  to  be  good  workers,  to  be  good  citizens,  to  regard 
employment  under  you  as  a  training  in  citizenship  as  well  as  a 
training  in  industrious  habits.  The  wage  is  very  important,  you 
cannot  monkey  with  the  wage  question.  Men  have  to  live  and 
know  what  they  are  entitled  to.  But  beyond  the  wage  proposi- 
tion is  the  human  proposition.  More  troubles,  more  irritations 
are  caused  by  mismanagement  than  by  wages,  by  slow  promo- 
tions. More  troubles  are  caused  by  favoritism,  by  insincerity, 
by  hypocrisy,  by  bad  temper,  than  by  any  other  mistake.  Eco- 
nomic adjustments  can  be  made,  such  necessities  can  be  seen, 
reported  upon,  investigated,  under  most  present  systems  of 
management.  These  other  things,  however,  escape  our  vigi- 
lance. They  depend  on  every  man  playing  the  game  squarely, 
they  cannot  be  seen  through  X-rays,  and  in  the  past  have  been 
reported  on  only  by  accident.     Every  man  must  see  to  it. 


310  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

A  FOREMAN'S  RESPONSIBILITY  AND 
AUTHORITY ' 

The  thesis  of  these  comments  is  the  relation  between  author- 
ity and  responsibihty — not  the  relation  between  authority  and 
pay,  nor  the  relation  between  authority  and  birth,  nor  any  other 
of  the  various  relations  which,  under  certain  circumstances, 
might  be  considered  as  giving  certain  people  authority  over 
others. 

The  best  example  I  can  think  of  to  illustrate  authority  and 
responsibility  is  that  of  a  mechanic  and  his  helper.  A  workman 
who  has  a  helper  who  runs  a  machine  for  him  must  see  to  it 
that  the  helper  runs  the  machine  properly;  and  so  he  is  responsi- 
ble. That  is  to  saj-,  he  is  responsible  for  seeing  that  the  helper 
runs  the  machine  properly.  Therefore,  we  give  him  the  author- 
ity to  boss  that  helper,  or  else  he  could  not  discharge  his  re- 
sponsibility. Suppose,  for  example,  that  a  heavy  forger  had  a 
hammer  runner,  and  had  no  authority  over  him;  the  hammer 
runner  would  run  the  hammer  to  suit  himself,  and  not  the  heavy 
forger;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  heavy  forger  be  given  the 
necessary  authority  to  boss  the  hammer  runner,  he  can  order  the 
hammer  runner  to  run  the  hammer  exactly  as  he  (the  forger) 
wants  it  done;  and  the  forger  cannot  do  his  work  properly  un- 
less he  has  that  authority. 

I  doubt  whether  there  is  any  authority  in  the  industrial  world 
more  absolute  than  that  of  the  mechanic  over  his  helper;  and 
as  for  arbitrariness  in  the  use  of  authority,  give  me  every  time 
the  manner  of  a  mechanic  in  telling  a  helper  to  pass  him  a 
wrench,  or  shoulder  a  piece  of  pipe.  If  a  foreman  should  speak 
in  such  manner  to  a  mechanic,  the  mechanic  would  quit. 

That  is  a  particularly  clear  case  of  giving  a  man  all  the  au- 
thority he  needs  to  discharge  his  responsibility ;  and  it  is  really 
a  pity  that  this  principle  has  not  more  general  observance. 

It  would  be  well  to  define  "responsibility."  The  Standard 
Dictionary  defines  it  as — "The  state  of  being  responsible,  an- 
swerable, accountable."  That,  of  course,  requires  the  definition 
of  "responsible" ;  which  means — "Answerable,  legally  or  morally, 
for  the  discharge  of  a  duty,  trust,  debt,  service,  or  other  obliga- 
tion;  accountable;   subject  to  obligation."     And  since  the  word 

*  By  F.  G.  Coburn.     Industrial  Management.     S3:349-S3-    June,   1917. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        311 

"duty"  has  been  mentioned,  let  it  be  defined  as,  "that  which  one 
is  bound  to  pay  or  do ;  that  which  a  particular  person  is  re- 
quired to  do ;  a  specified  obligatory  service  or  function." 

There  will  be  noted  a  difference  between  "duty"  and  "re- 
sponsibility"— a  difference  that  is  not  very  generally  understood. 
The  helper  is  "responsible"  to  the  mechanic  for  running  his 
hammer;  it  is  his  "duty"  to  run  the  hammer.  The  workman  is 
"responsible"  to  the  foreman  for  doing  his  work  properly  and 
for  seeing  to  it  that  the  helper  does  his  work.  The  "duty"  of  the 
workman  is  the  performance  of  the  work.  The  workman's  load 
is  nearly  all  duty,  without  much  responsibility.  In  the  case  of  a 
foreman  there  is  found  a  greater  preponderance  of  responsibil- 
ity; he  is  responsible  for  seeing  that  the  workmen  discharge 
their  duties ;  he  is  responsible  for  the  plant,  and  for  other  things. 
The  general  executive's  load  consists  altogether  of  responsibil- 
ities, usually;  he  generally  has  no  duties.  He  discharges  his 
responsibilities  largely  by  giving  decisions  and  by  thinking  of 
things  for  other  people  to  do ;  to  put  one's  finger  on  his  duties 
or  specific  services  rendered  is  an  almost  impossible  thing. 

Between  these  two  cases — the  case  of  the  workman  and  the 
case  of  the  general  executive — there  are  various  mixtures  of 
duties  and  responsibilities  and  gradations  of  responsibility.  A 
foreman,  for  example,  has  both  responsibilities  and  duties.  It 
may  be  that  he  is  responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  machinery, 
and  plant,  fire  protection,  etc. ;  and  it  may  be  his  duty  to  inspect 
the  machiner}'  and  plant,  and  to  have  fire  drills. 

The  distinction  between  duty  and  responsibility  is  becoming 
clear  more  rapidly,  I  think,  in  military  circles  than  in  industrial 
circles.  The  older  idea  of  military  organization  was  one  of 
central  authority;  all  orders  were  issued  by  the  general  to  his 
subordinates,  who  were  allowed  practically  no  latitude.  The 
later  idea  is,  to  issue  orders  for  those  things  which  must  be 
done ;  and  to  issue  instructions  for  those  things  which  it  is  de- 
sired to  have  done,  leaving  to  the  responsible  officer  on  the  spot 
the  authority  to  deviate  from  those  instructions  as  may  be  neces- 
sary. To  the  officer  on  the  spot  is  delegated  responsibility,  and 
complete  authority  to  discharge  that  responsibility.  It  was  the 
lack  of  appreciation  of  this  principle  that  made  so  much  trouble 
for  the  British  in  the  Boer  War  in  South  Africa. 

Reverting  to  the  case  of  the  foreman,  consider  the  policy 
that  has  been,  and  still  is,  very  often  expressed  of  "holding  the 


312  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

foreman  responsible  for  results."  "Here  is  the  shop,  and  the 
forces,  and  the  equipment,  and  I  will  hold  you  responsible  for 
results ;  I  cannot  be  bothered  with  what  goes  on  inside  the  shop." 
In  consequence,  he  must  be  given  complete  authority  to  hire  and 
fire,  to  fix  wages,  to  buy  equipment  and  machinery  and  tools,  to 
specify  materials,  to  dictate  shop  rules,  and  to  fix  the  conditions 
of  employment. 

The  evils  of  that  situation  became  evident  to  many  minds 
several  years  ago ;  and  gradually  the  foreman  has  been  relieved 
of  many  of  his  former  authorities.  It  is  quite  common,  for  ex- 
ample, for  the  foreman  not  to  hire  and  fire,  but  to  have  that 
power  vested  in  a  labor  bureau,  which,  therefore,  is  a  potent 
factor  in  determining  the  grade  of  labor.  In  the  engineering 
department  is  placed  the  authority  to  decide  questions  of  design, 
and  of  material.  All  these  things  have  to  do  with  the  quality 
and  cost -of  the  work. 

If  authority  in  these  and  similar  things  be  taken  from  the 
foreman,  he  cannot  logically  be  held  responsible  for  them;  yet 
frequently,  the  same  man  who  will  say — "I  hold  the  foreman  re- 
sponsible"^vvill  not,  in  many  instances,  grant  the  foreman  the 
necessary  authority  to  discharge  fully  that  responsibility. 

Whenever  this  principle  is  violated,  and  the  responsibility  for 
a  matter  placed  on  one  person  whilst  the  necessary  authority  is 
vested  in  another,  there  is  developed  a  condition  known  in  the 
vernacular  as  "passing  the  buck."  For  example  if  it  be  at- 
tempted to  hold  the  foreman  responsible  "for  the  cost  of  work," 
and  the  authority  to  fix  wages  rests  with  the  general  executive, 
and  for  the  specification  of  the  material  rests  with  the  chief  en- 
gineer, what  happens  when  the  foreman  is  taken  to  task  for  the 
high  cost  of  work?  He  advances,  as  reasons,  factors  over  which 
he  has  no  control,  and  usually  he  is  right. 

Like  that  is  the  condition  which  arises  out  of  divided  re- 
sponsibility. For  example,  it  is  possible  to  divide  responsibility 
between  the  foreman  and  the  inspector.  Then,  if  a  job  is  defec- 
tive, the  foreman  says  the  inspector  is  at  fault,  and  the  inspector 
says  the  foreman  is  at  fault.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  foreman 
be  held  responsible  for  workmanship,  and  inspector  for  reporting 
defective  work,  each  man's  responsibility  is  clearly  mapped  out, 
and  each  may  be  held  accountable  for  his  part. 

In  the  case  of  a  very  small  plant,  with  but  few  workmen,  it 
may  be  that  one  man  can  retain  all  the  responsibility  and  all  the 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  313 

authority;  he  can  look  out  for  everything.  But  when  the  plant 
is  large,  the  manager  cannot  be  personally  in  contact  with  every- 
thing. Then,  if  he  still  retains  the  responsibility  and  authority, 
every  matter  must  go  to  him  for  decision.  If  he  is  not  imme- 
diately available,  then  delay  results,  until  the  decision  is  forth 
coming.  This  is  a  condition  very  often  met.  If  the  subordinate 
take  a  chance  and  make  the  decision  himself,  the  odds  are  equally 
good  that  he  will  have  to  undo  his  work.  Thus  the  job  is  de- 
layed and  its  cost  increased. 

It  is,  therefore,  evidently  necessary  to  delegate  authority  and 
responsibility  to  those  near  the  work;  in  other  words,  to  author- 
ize them  to  make  decisions  for  that  part  of  the  work  going  on 
under  their  supervision;  succinctly,  those  close  to  the  work 
should  direct  it. 

The  delegation  of  responsibility  is  strongly  opposed  by  cer- 
tain managers  of  the  old  school,  because  they  feel  that  theirs  is 
finally  the  responsibility,  and  that  they  cannot  trust  anybody 
else.  Were  this  true,  it  would  constitute  a  great  defect  in  the 
factory  system ;  and  a  great  many  so  consider  it.  But  the  dele- 
gation of  responsibility  is  really  a  great  advantage  of  the  factory 
system,  an  advantage  to  society,  because  it  enables  a  man  of 
great  entrepreneur  ability  to  swing  large  enterprises,  that  he 
could  not  possibly  swing  singlehanded. 

Now,  whilst  the  supervisory  force  close  to  the  work  should 
have  authority  to  make  decisions  and  should  be  responsible  for 
those  decisions,  yet  in  order  to  insure  that  they  use  their  author- 
ity wisely,  and  to  make  them  distinctly  feel  their  responsibility, 
their  orders  should  be  subject  to  review;  not,  however,  subject 
to  approval,  as  is  frequently  the  case. 

That  is  to  say,  if  a  foreman  or  superintendent  give  an  order 
to  a  subordinate,  and  if  orders  be  subject  to  approval,  then,  if 
the  subordinate  does  not  want  to  carry  out  the  order,  he  knows 
that  the  order  is  not  good  if  he  questions  it.  This  condition  re- 
sults in  dissension,  and  is  subversive  of  good  order  and  dis- 
cipline ;  it  delays  the  work  and  increases  the  cost. 

The  proper  method  is  to  make  orders  subject  to  review. 
Then,  when  the  superintendent  or  foreman  issues  an  order,  it 
will  be  carried  out,  "if,  as,  and  when  issued."  A  subordinate 
who  thinks  he  has  received  a  wrong  order,  may,  after  carrying 
it  out,  take  it  up  with  the  proper  officer  of  the  company. 

Since  those  in  subordinate  positions  are  working  their  way 


314  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

up,  and  are  always  doing  a  job  that  is  in  some  respects,  at  least, 
new  to  them — perhaps  in  some  respects  just  bejond  their  present 
capacity — it  may  be  expected  that  those  subordinates  will  take 
greater  interest  in  the  work  than  would  the  highest  executive; 
because  the  man  at  the  top  has  already  worked  his  way  up ;  and 
it  is  certainly  a  fact  that  after  long  years  of  doing  certain  things 
they  lose  their  novelty,  and  the  work  of  doing  them  becomes 
drudgery.  This  drudgery  may  not  be  apparent  to  the  persons 
concerned,  but  it  is  there,  nevertheless. 

General  Goethals  understood  the  principle  of  delegation  of 
authority,  as  evidenced  by  the  success  that  ht  enjoyed  at  Pan- 
ama. Orders  were  subject  to  review,  not  to  approval.  Every 
Sunday  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  the  General's  (then  Colonel's) 
door  was  open  to  any  employee,  however  low  his  station,  who 
thought  he  had  a  grievance.  The  General  investigated  the  griev- 
ance, and  if  an  assistant,  no  matter  what  his  station,  had  given 
an  erroneous  decision,  it  was  revised.  The  assistants  knew  that 
their  decisions  were  subject  to  this  review,  and  were  undoubtedly 
careful  in  making  decisions;  for  the  number  of  hearings  and  re- 
visions of  subordinates'  decisions  was  extraordinarily  small — 
almost  inappreciable. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  personal  responsibility  which  cannot 
be  delegated  to  another;  in  the  Navy,  for  example,  we  dock 
ships ;  and  the  docking  officer  is  held  personally  responsible. 
Disbursing  officers  in  the  Navy  are  personally  responsible  for 
every  payment  made,  not  only  by  themselves,  but  by  their  as- 
sistants. They  cannot  delegate  responsibility  to  their  pay  clerks, 
even  for  the  petty  cash. 

Another  condition  is  not  infrequently  found;  a  man  is  given 
a  responsibility  which  it  is  impossible  to  discharge.  Likewise  a 
man  is  frequently  assigned  a  duty  to  perform  which  is  not  with- 
in the  bounds  of  human  possibility  to  do.  For  example,  in  a 
large  plant  a  subordinate  might  be  made  personally  responsible 
for  keeping  visitors  out  of  all  the  shops.  This  would  be  an  im- 
possible task.  Whilst  he  may  be  called  responsible,  he  cannot 
watch  all  the  doors.  Then,  again,  it  might  be  the  duty  of  the 
foreman  of  the  shop  to  plan  every  job  that  comes  in,  which  he 
cannot  do ;  unless  he  ceases  to  be  a  foreman,  and  becomes  a 
planner. 

The  committee  form  of  organization  is  not  without  faults  in 
these  respects.     When  a  committee  is   clothed    with  executive 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT       315 

authority,  since  all  the  members  of  the  committee  have  equal 
authority,  there  is  danger  of  issuing  conflicting  orders ;  and  since 
the  several  members  of  the  committee  may  delegate  responsibil- 
ity to  different  persons,  and  also  possibly  withhold  authority,  a 
badly  mixed  situation  may  develop.  And  then  sometimes  com- 
mittees are  clothed  with  deliberative  responsibility,  and  one  per- 
son— perhaps  the  chairman  or  other  member  of  the  committee, — 
is  given  the  authority  for  carrying  out  the  decision.  There  the 
responsibility  for  the  decision  rests  with  the  committee,  and  for 
the  execution  thereof  with  the  individual;  the  result  of  which 
may  be  an  effort  to  shift  responsibility  back  and  forth,  and  to 
delay  action.  There  is  a  way  of  making  the  committee  system 
work.  That  is,  by  making  one  member,  usually  the  chairman, 
responsible  for  the  decision;  the  other  members  of  the  commit- 
tee being  there  only  to  give  advice  or  suggestions  in  the  course 
of  the  conference. 

Now,  let  us  define  "authority."  It  is  "The  right  to  command 
and  to  enforce  obedience;  the  right  to  act  by  virtue  of  office, 
station,  or  relation;  also,  the  power  derived  from  individual  or 
moral  superiority,  from  reputation,  or  from  whatever  else  com- 
mands influence,  respect,  or  esteem." 

If  responsibility  be  carefully  placed;  if  exact  measure  of  au- 
thority be  delegated  with  the  responsibility;  and  if  those  who 
receive  the  responsibility  are  gifted  with  the  power  derived  from 
individual  or  moral  superiority,  there  need  be  little  giving  of 
orders. 

FOREMEN— SUCH  AS  AMERICA  NEEDS* 

The  qualifications  which  should  characterize  a  shop  foreman 
may  readily  be  divided  into  two  classes :  external  and  internal. 
The  former  has  reference  to  those  qualities  which  make  him  a 
competent  and  skilled  workman,  an  expert  operator  on  a  ma- 
chine (if  need  be),  an  accurate  judge  of  work  processes  and  ma- 
chines, a  perfect  appraiser  of  good-  work  and  equally  perfect 
and  impartial  critic  of  imperfect  product.  In  addition  to  these, 
he  must  have  accumulated  experience  which  will  enable  him  to 
deal  directly  with  every  phase  of  the  work  which  is  to  be  under 
his   personal    direction.     These   are   all   important  and   essential 

^  From  article  by  G.  W.  Bowie.  Industrial  Management.  53:702-13. 
August,    1917. 


3i6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

qualities  and  may  be  classed  as  external.  A  man,  even  a  clever 
one  with  experience  and  skill,  might  possess  all  these  good 
qualities,  yet  fail  as  a  foreman.  The  perfect  foreman  possesses 
all  these  qualities,  but  it  is  even  more  important  that  he  should 
be  the  possessor  of  other  and  interior  qualities  and  elements  of 
character. 

The  external  qualification  may  fairly  be  described  as  phys- 
ical the  internal  qualifications  may,  with  equal  justice,  be 
termed  psychological.  These  latter  are  the  great  desideratiDii  in 
a  foreman  for  handling  men.  It  is  to  these  latent,  internal, 
mental  and  moral  qualities  I  desire  to  call  the  special  attention 
of  the  readers  of  this  magazine. 

This  matter  of  handling  men  is  not  troublesome  to  write 
about,  but  under  certain  conditions  it  presents  many  difficulties 
in  operation.  In  the  first  place,  employers  of  labor  are  look- 
ing for  men  as  administration  captains  and  sub-captains  of  their 
labor  force.  The  caliber  of  the  men  they  are  desirous  to  ob- 
tain is  such  that  they  must  have  a  certain  amount  of  general 
education — the  more  the  man  has  the  better  for  him.  But  many 
other  considerations  enter  into  the  choosing  and  appointing  of 
good  foremen. 

It  is  certain  that  employers  are  not  going  to  put  their  in- 
terests in  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  man — there  is  too  much  at 
stake.  In  addition  to  some  education — the  amount  regulated 
by  the  position  to  be  filled — a  foreman  must  first  be  a  judge  of 
human  nature,  and  able  to  use  judgment  and  skill  in  selecting 
the  men  who  are  best  fitted  for  the  most  important  and  skillful 
work  to  be  done ;  in  other  words,  in  placing  suitable  men  on  the 
classes  of  work  that  will  keep  production  up  to  the  maximum 
without  impairing  the  quality. 

A  foreman  without  lessening  his  dignity  or  self-respect  or 
making  himself  too  familiar  with  his  men,  will  find  that  he 
cannot  handle  all  men  along  the  same  lines.  He  must,  there- 
fore, adapt  himself  to  men  and  their  methods.  He  may  find  it 
trying  on  his  patience  that  some  men  see  great  and  imaginary 
difficulties  surrounding  their  jobs;  that  some  men  are  fond  of 
making  complaints,  either  about  their  working  conditions  or 
their  fellow  workmen ;  that  some  are  easy  to  offend,  and  some 
wish  to  make  themselves  too  friendly  and  effusively  familiar. 
With  so  many  kinds  of  men  and  conditions  confronting  a  fore- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  317 

man,  it  would  take  a  "Daniel  come  to  judgment"  to  know  what 
is  always  best  to  do  or  how  to  proceed  to  do  it. 

It  is  the  foreman's  duty  to  listen  to  tales  of  troubles,  make 
light  of  them,  point  out  how  small  they  seem,  advise  the  work- 
men how  to  get  around  his  difficulties,  smooth  down  the  high- 
tempered  one,  so  that  his  or  the  other  fellow's  troubles  get  so 
small  and  inconsequential  in  appearance  that  the  workman  may 
even  apologize  for  thinking  he  had  any  troubles  at  all. 

The  present  day  requirements  of  a  foreman  have  become  so 
numerous  and  his  duties  so  onerous,  that  he  has  become  an  asset 
even  more  than  a  fine  machine.  To  get  the  highest  efficiency  out 
of  him,  he  has  to  have  some  protection  and  encouragement  to 
identify  himself  with  the  management.  In  other  words,  he  has 
to  act  as  a  buffer  between  the  workmen  and  the  company.  On 
that  account  and  to  make  his  actions  effective,  he  should  have 
unrestrained  opportunity  in  selecting  workmen,  at  the  same 
time,  of  course,  cooperating  with  the  employment  bureau.  But 
he  should  be  more  than  a  buffer  between  apparently  conflicting 
interests.  He  should  rather  be  a  bond  of  union  between  in- 
terests which  are  or  should  be  identical. 

The  foreman  being  responsible  for  the  production  of  his 
department,  must  possess  the  right  to  dismiss  a  man  from  his 
department  if  he  is  dissatisfied  with  that  man's  competency  to 
fill  the  situation.  Care  should  be  taken  that  the  duties  and 
rights  of  each  individual  foreman  do  not  interfere  or  overlap 
with  those  of  another,  so  as  to  avoid  friction  and  have  harmony 
prevail  among  the  different  department  heads. 

To  be  successful  as  a  foreman,  there  are  certain  charac- 
teristics a  man  must  possess.  These  I  have  tried  to  arrange  in 
the  order  of  their  relation  to  each  other.  One  is  just  as  im- 
portant as  the  other.  "All  are  but  parts  of  one  essential 
whole,"  as  Pope  put  its !  These  are :  Tact,  Sincerity,  Loyalty, 
Education,  Technical  Training,  Initiative  and  Executive  Ability. 

Tact 

A  tactful  foreman  is  one  who  can  handle  and  govern  his 
men  without  being  offensive  in  the  use  of  his  authority.  If  he 
wants  a  job  in  a  hurry,  he  knows  just  the  man  who  will  do  it 
in  the  proper  spirit  and  without  asking  unnecessary  questions. 
If  he  wants  to  get  a  time  limit  on  a  piece  of  work,  he  will 
probably  give  it  to  a  broad-minded  workman,  not  to  one  who 


3i8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

sees  or  imagines  a  curtailment  of  his  rights  and  visionary 
privileges.  The  workman  with  acerbity  of  temper  is  too  fre- 
quently in  evidence,  and  the  foreman  must  jolly  him  into  good 
nature.  Although  he  does  not  have  to  waste  time  on  such  men, 
they  exist  just  the  same  and  should  be  used  to  the  best  advan- 
tage. The  good  foreman  will  take  men  as  he  finds  them  in 
their  various  molds,  and  shift  them  around  to  advantage. 

The  probability  is  that  if  the  foreman  is  good  tempered  and 
has  will  power  to  regulate  his  feelings,  he  can  infect  the  men 
under  him  with  a  similar  condition  of  mind.  If  he  can  control 
the  many  causes  that  arc  liable  to  upset  his  equanimity  and 
hold  himself  under  restraint  (where  he  cannot  control  the  con- 
ditions) he  will  probably  go  home  at  the  end  of  the  day  with 
his  spirit  soothed.  Some  foremen  leave  their  work  in  the  same 
state  as  their  mind— all  mussed  up,  chaotic— go  home  worried 
and  the  next  morning  are  in  anything  but  a  pleasant  frame  of 
mind  and  unable  to  be  tactful  under  pressing  duties.  To  the 
man  who  is  tactful,  his  day's  duties  and  difficulties  become  in- 
significant when  quitting  time  comes. 

I  recall  an  instance  of  recent  date  in  our  own  plant  where 
one  of  our  foremen  was  suddenly  confronted  with  a  difficult 
situation  at  tlie  very  busiest  and  most  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  the  company.  A  skilled  mechanic  (who,  by  the  way, 
was  spoken  of  as  a  possible  foreman)  stirred  up  discontent. 
He  drew  up  a  paper  and  induced  some  thirty  other  mechanics 
to  sign  "demanding  instantly"  that  impossible  conditions  be 
granted  them.  The  foreman  saw  at  a  glance  that  even  if  it 
had  been  possible,  or  if  it  were  judicious  to  grant  their  de- 
mands (neither  of  which  propositions  were  true)  to  do  so  would 
not  only  disorganize  those  departments  for  which  he  was  directly 
responsible,  but  practically  all  the  other  operating  departments 
would  be  involved.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  we  could  not  afford 
to  lose  or  even  antagonize  those  men.  They  were  key  men,  so 
to  speak,  in  the  operation  of  the  plant. 

This  foreman  did  not,  ho\vc\'er,  have  recourse  to  the  man- 
agers to  meet  his  difficulty  for  him.  He  solved  his  own  problem 
by  tact.  He  called  the  leader  into  his  office  and  explained  the 
situation  to  him  clearly  and  how  impossible  it  was  to  concede 
their  unreasonable  demands  at  a  moment's  notice.  He  requested 
the  leader  therefore  to  withdraw  his  name,  return  to  his  work 
and  "forget  it,"  promising  that  he  would  "forget  it"  also  and 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        319 

would  not  hold  it  against  him.  The  leader  would  not  consent 
to  this  arrangement,  but  wanted  to  return  to  the  men  for  fur- 
ther consultation.  The  foreman  told  him  that  each  of  the  men 
would  be  given  the  same  opportunity  to  withdraw,  and  that  if 
he  could  not  accept  the  terms  he  would  have  to  be  dismissed. 
So  he  quit  on  the  spot. 

The  foreman  called  in  five  others,  repeated  the  case  and  the 
opportunity.  Three  withdrew  and  returned  to  work,  the  other 
two  elected  to  be  dismissed,  though  they  returned  the  follow- 
ing day  with  a  request  to  be  reinstated,  which  was  granted. 
Then  the  foremen  played  his  best  and  most  tactful  part  by  mak- 
ing a  little  speech  to  all  the  others  involved,  conciliatory  in  tone, 
explaining  why  he  could  not  be  expected  to  comply  with  their 
demands.  He  also  suggested  that  they  too  forget  it,  as  he 
would  do  in  their  interest  and  return  to  their  work. 

All  at  once  consented  except  three,  who  elected  to  be  dis-- 
charged,  though  they  too  returned  the  following  day  for  their 
jobs  and  were  reinstated.  Tact  had  won.  The  foreman  won, 
not  by  accepting  the  men's  plans  and  granting  their  demands, 
but  by  tactfuly  declining  both.  Some  of  the  men  confessed 
that  they  were  practically  coerced  into  signing  the  paper  as 
they  feared  the  gibes  and  jeers  of  their  companions  if  they  did 
not  and  were  glad  of  an  excuse  to  "forget  it." 

The  actful  foreman  will  "sense"  situations  like  these,  and 
by  eliminating  the  originating  cause,  in  this  case  a  fractious  man, 
leave  himself  free  to  meet  the  difficulty  on  more  easy  terms. 

Sincerity 

Sincerity  is  another  powerful  factor  in  handling  men.  Sin- 
cerity in  this  life  is  one  of  the  most  ennobling  traits  of  the 
human  race.  But  sincerity  in  the  shop  as  well  as  in  private  life 
is  a  quality  every  one  of  us  should  develop.  As  applied  to  hand- 
ling men,  if  you  promise  a  man  anything  see  that  he  gets  it. 
Do  not  promise  something  you  cannot  give  or  have  no  right 
to  promise.  Treat  all  men  alike  and  base  all  promises  on  that 
fact.  Sincerity,  I  believe,  can  gain  a  foreman  more  respect 
than  any  other  quality  he  may  possess;  more  respect  than  the 
fact  that  he  is  the  finest  workmen  in  the  shop,  or  a  good  man- 
ager, or  anything  in  which  he  may  be  superior  to  the  general 
run  of  men.  His  recognized  sincerity  will  crown  him  king  of 
his  department. 


320  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

A  foreman  with  this  characteristic  is  a  dependable  quantity 
with  those  with  whom  he  conies  in  contact.  If  he  has  an 
opinion,  he  holds  to  it,  knowing  it  to  be  right.  If  he  needs  or 
gets  enlightenment  he  will  very  likely  alter  his  opinion,  but  in 
matters  of  shop  management,  facilities  or  utilities  let  him  be 
sincere.  Do  nothing  merely  to  coincide  with  someone  else's 
opinion;  hold  to  your  judgment  and  give  all  the  reasons  for 
your  beUef. 

A  man  lacking  in  sincerity  and  singleness  of  purpose  is  a 
losing  proposition  to  any  firm.  Fellows  will  talk  of  him  to  his 
disadvantage  because  he  cannot  be  relied  upon.  But  the  man 
who  can  and  will  demand  the  respect  of  his  men,  based  on  his 
sincerity,  truthfulness  and  single-mindedness  is  the  possessor 
of  one  of  the  most  efficient  factors. 

Loyalty 

Loyalty  to  the  company  and  its  officers  is  also  a  necessary 
qualification  in  fully  qualified  foremen.  A  great  deal  of  havoc 
can  be  wrought  by  foremen  allowing  advance  information  re- 
ferring to  the  company's  plans  and  work  to  leak  out.  In  many 
instances  labor  troubles  in  the  form  of  strikes  may  result  from 
this  breach  of  confidence,  upsetting  the  morale  of  the  workman 
and  disorganizing  and  demoralizing  the  system  under  which  a 
shop  is  run.  Loyalty  to  a  company  calls  for  a  man  in  many 
instances  to  sink  his  own  personal  opinions  and  carry  out  the 
policy  of  the  company.  If  a  foreman  feels  aggrieved  at  such 
a  condition  it  is  best  for  him  to  say  nothing. 

The  suggestive  attitude  or  the  passive  or  non-receptive  ac- 
tion of  many  foremen  is  the  cause  of  much  trouble  to  a  com- 
pany, and  many  indirectly  lead  to  accidents.  For  example,  a 
manager,  superintendent  or  general  foreman  has  decided  to 
change  from  past  methods  of  doing  work,  to  introduce  a  more 
methodical,  efficient  and  systematic  handling  of  work  and  men, 
or  desires  to  put  into  use  a  new  line  of  tools  to  reduce  costs  and 
increase  production.  This  is  where  the  undesirable  foreman  gets 
in  his  offensive  work.  While  it  may  be  prejudice,  ignorance  or 
simply  "cussedness"  on  his  part,  he  can  communicate  plainly 
the  position  he  will  take  on  these  matters  to  his  men  by  an 
ironical  smile,  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  lifting  of  the  eyebrows 
and  many  other  ways  so    suggestive  that  his  men  will  take  their 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        321 

cue  from  him  and  oppose  the  use  of  facilities  and  methods 
which  would  ease  their  own  labor  and  perhaps  increase  the 
value  of  their  pay  envelope.  Men  who  desire  to  be  foremen 
should  remember  that  the  suggestive  attitude  is  just  as  power- 
ful for  good  as  for  evil.  Such  is  loyalty  in  its  broadest  aspect. 
Readiness  to  adopt  ^nj-  new  suggestions  help  them  along,  show 
up  their  weak  spots,  if  need  be,  but  give  them  a  trial,  a  square 
deal. 

That  is  the  least  any  man  can  do  who  respects  himself. 
Many  a  man  loses  his  opportunity  right  at  this  point  to  be- 
come a  noticeable  quantity  in  the  shop  management.  It  may 
be  he  has  an  opportunity  to  show  his  calibre,  to  demonstrate  his 
thinking  qualities,  to  give  evidence  that  he  has  mental  and  tech- 
nical abilities  that  were  never  suspected. 

Education 

The  part  that  education  plays  in  the  equipment  and  quali- 
fications of  a  foreman  of  high  order  is  very  important.  It 
should  be  broad  enough  to  give  him  a  fair  working  knowledge 
of  the  leading  principles  of  general  science,  chemistry,  mechanics 
and  probably  electricity,  as  all  of  these  enter  more  or  less  into 
the  most  ordinary  operations  in  any  modern  plant,  factory  or 
machine  shop.  They  form  the  basis,  the  A.  B.  C.'s  of  the  suc- 
cessful working  of  most  industries. 

Present  day  demands  require  that  a  foreman  should  be  more 
or  less  accomplished  in  these  three  qualifications.  He  should  be 
familiar  with  many  divergent  matters  relating  to  manufacturing 
processes,  by  reading  as  well  as  other  methods.  He  should  be 
able  to  express  his  views  in  fluent,  explicit  and  descriptive  speech, 
and  also  be  able  to  put  his  views,  orders  and  reports  in  accurate 
writing.  He  may  be  a  good  foreman  and  lack  one  or  more  of 
these  qualities,  but  the  possessor  of  these  three  will  greatly  in- 
crease its  efficiency,  reduce  friction  in  management  to  a  mini- 
mum, and  economize  his  time  and  efforts. 

One  who  possesses  a  varied  store  of  knowledge  on  which  he 
can  draw  in  an  emergency  to  fill  a  daily  requirement,  or  a  call 
for  immediate  purpose,  is  highly  valuable  and  a  useful  man  in 
any  plant.  His  education,  therefore,  includes  a  training  of  the 
mental  facilities  which  carries  him  along  toward  the  higher 
planes    of   humanity,   greatly   broadens    his    views   of   men    and 


322  SELFXTED   ARTICLES 

policies  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  perfect  equipment  as  a  fore- 
man. It  gives  his  reasoning  powers  the  faculty  of  restraint  and 
confers  charity  of  judgment  as  to  the  opinions,  conduct,  work 
and  temperament  of  other  workmen.  He  conciliates  them  by 
consideration   for  their  individual  proclivities. 

The  all-around  perfectly  equipped  and  well-balanced  fore- 
man welds  the  negative,  and  even  the  opposing  forces  of  other 
men  into  a  homogeneous  positive  whole,  thus  making  them  duc- 
tile and  pliant  to  his  own  educated  will.  He  thus  develops  re- 
sults which  are  a  positive  productive  asset  to  his  company.  He 
induces  men  and  molds  methods  to  work  smoothly  toward  a 
common  end.  His  highest  efficiency  is  not  in  the  work  he  per- 
forms himself,  but  in  the  fine  and  fair  work  he  receives  from 
his  own  men. 

The  accomplishment  of  the  work  in  hand  by  the  application 
of  system  in  all  things,  a  clear  conception  of  what  is  required, 
a  mental  capacity  to  appl}'  his  technical  and  scholastic  educa- 
tion to  the  best  advantage,  are  the  qualities — attributes  rather — 
which  constitute  the  ideal  foreman  so  far  as  educational  quali- 
ties are  concerned.  But  there  is  also  an  inner  side  to  education, 
especially  that  of  a  clever  foreman  which  is  most  desirable  to 
train  and  develop.     We  term  this  quality  or  attribute  insight. 

Initiative 

This  is  one  of  the  rare  qualities  which  is  occasionally  found 
among  foremen.  "Tis  a  quality  which  makes  a  man  pre-emi- 
nent amongst  his  fellows  in  any  age,  in  any  clime,  in  any  con- 
dition. Such  men  shape  the  destinies  of  nations,  armies,  gov- 
ernments!" They  confer  "light  and  leading,"  understanding  and 
insight  by  their  own  possession  of  original  thought — and  more 
particularly,  direct  decisive  action  at  the  cataclysmic  moment 
to  avert  danger,  or  save  a  situation  fraught  with  possible  perils 
and  disasters. 

The  foreman  who  is  endowed  with  this  pre-eminent  gift  of 
leadership  and  initiative  is,  of  course  and  unfortunately,  rare. 
When  such  a  man  is  compelled  or  allowed  to  act  upon  his  own 
responsibility  and  resources — even  if  accountable  to  superior 
officers^and  carries  out  his  own  plans  to  logical  and  sane  con- 
clusions, his  employer  immediately  realizes  that  he  is  a  man  who 
is  gifted  by  nature  and  fitted  by  experience,  to  become  a  cap- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  323 

tain  of  industry.  He  is  henceforward  a  marked  man  who  has 
proved  himself  capable  of  meeting  emergencies,  which  may  in- 
advertently be  thrust  upon  him,  with  promptitude,  skill  and 
serene  sagacity. 

The  unusual  and  sometimes  irritating  circumstances  which 
discourage  and  defeat  the  average  man  only  serve  to  call  forth 
to  their  highest  excellency  and  efficiency  the  superior  endow- 
ments of  the  man  of  initiative  and  resourceful  powers.  Such 
a  man  was  Andrew  Carnegie  who  more  than  fifty  years  ago 
was  an  unnoticed  telegraph  operator  on  the  Pennsylvania  Road, 
and  in  that  capacity  also  acted  as  secretary  to  the  superintendent 
of  a  division. 

One  day,  in  the  absence  of  his  chief,  there  was  a  serious 
wreck  on  the  road  which  utterly  dislocated  all  traffic.  The  situ- 
ation demanded  that  heroic  measures  be  taken  to  reopen  the 
road  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  in  the  meantime  the  traffic  of 
two  complete  divisions  be  re-routed  in  various  directions, 
"Andy"  stepped  into  the  breach  with  courage,  decision,  great 
good  judgment  and  common  sense.  He  proceeded  to  issue  tele- 
graphic orders  in  the  name  of  his  superintendent,  and  in  a  very 
brief  period  brought  order  out  of  the  chaos  and  the  traffic  was 
presently  resumed  in  normal  routine. 

There  was  no  official  with  the  requisite  authority  at  hand  to 
take  immediate  charge  of  a  most  critical  situation,  demanding 
initiative,  courage  and  decision.  He  possessed — though  un- 
known to  himself  until  then — all  three  and  proceeded  to  meet 
the  difficulties  and  overcome  them  in  harmony  with  the  old 
Scotch  adage : 

If  you  gently  stroke  a  nettle 
It  will  sting  you  for  your  pains,    . 
Grasp  it  like  a  man  of  metal 
And  it  soft  as  silk  remains. 

That  event— metaphorically  speaking— placed  Andrew  Car- 
negie on  the  map.  He  was  shortly  afterward  placed  where  his 
talent  for  action  under  extraordinary  circumstances  would  be 
utilized  to  better  advantage.  His  initiative  thus  became  a  vital 
factor  in  his  future  advancement  in  his  spectacular  career. 

Initiative  and  self-reliance  will  do  your  work  if  directed  by 
good  judgment  and  calm  courage.  Nelson  displayed  both  in 
magnificent   fashion   when   on   his   own   initiative  he   sailed  his 


324  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

ships  with  heroic  courage  past  the  "blazing  batteries"  into  the 
roadstead  of  Copenhagen  and  captured  the  entire  fleet  of  Den- 
mark, exclaiming,  "This  means  a  court-martial  or  a  monument 
in  Westminster !" 

Executive   Ability 

Executive  ability  is  the  ne  pins  ultra  of  a  foreman  of  para- 
mount ability.  The  embodiment  of  one  who  can  assume  the 
onus  of  the  management,  efficiently  and  systematically  of  an  in- 
dustry or  any  of  its  departments.  Executive  ability  includes 
three  fundamental  qualifications,  viz.,  administrative  judgment, 
system  and  efficiency,  and  scientific  technique.  All  are  valuable 
and  necessary  in  any  particular  industry.  Each  one  of  these 
qualifications  would  require  a  thesis  in  itself  which  is  beyond 
my  present  purpose. 

Administrative  judgment  demands  that  foremen  should 
possess  a  calm  and  judicial  view  of  the  complex  forms  or  con- 
ditions that  may  arise  in  the  management  of  workmen,  also  the 
interruptions  to  production  arising  from  accidents  to  machinery, 
labor  difficulties,  non-arrival  or  shortage  of  material,  entailing 
a  re-routing  and  distribution  through  other  machines,  and  fur- 
ther in  educating  and  breaking  in  new  men  to  work  effectively 
on  an  efficiency  schedule. 

Adaptation  is  needed  also  on  the  part  of  the  foreman  or  a 
superintendent  to  combat  those  troubles  arising  daily  and  to 
grasp  them  with  mental  vigor;  also  to  make  physical  changes 
as  may  be  dictated  by  the  surrounding  circumstances. 

Administrative  judgment  requires  that  this  captain  of  in- 
dustry should  have  at  his  command  a  broad  mental  attitude 
toward  the  workmen  and  other  men  in  charge  so  as  to  create 
an  unanimity  of  purpose  throughout  the  establishment,  which 
will  animate  all  toward  one  common  end — production  at  the  low- 
est possible  cost.  When  working  under  safe  and  sane  manage- 
ment good  workmen  will  yield  the  most  intensive  and  satisfac- 
tory results. 

Each  foreman  should  know  exactly  what  is  required  of  him 
from  a  schedule  of  the  day's  work.  If  unable  to  make  it  from 
any  unforeseen  cause  which  might  arise,  then  he  should  go  to 
the  fountain-head  or  source  of  the  work  schedule,  for  advice  or 
revised  information. 

There  is  no  time  in  a   factory  for  indecision.     Decision  of 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        325 

character  when  doubt  arises  is  a  powerful  aid  to  a  resource- 
ful man.  He  is  usually  a  man  who  has  mentally  stored  away, 
either  from  much  reading  or  previous  experience,  inherent  ideas 
which  will  fit  or  be  adaptable  to  almost  any  emergency. 

Scientific  technique  or  technical  ability  supports  the  above 
mentioned  characteristic.  To  put  a  man  into  a  position  to  direct 
the  labor,  production  and  interests  of  an  industry  of  any  de- 
scription, one  who  is  not  provided  with  technical  knowledge, 
would  be  similar  to  sending  a  ship  well  found  and  thoroughly 
equipped  to  sea  without  a  navigator.  Such  a  ship  would  in- 
evitably get  lost  or  wrecked  and  like  misfortune  will  overtake 
any  industry  whose  foreman  or  superintendent  is  deficient  in 
the  necessary  technicalities  of  his  trade. 


Trade  Education 

To  advise  a  foreman  as  to  what  extent  his  technical  edu- 
cation necessarily  should  go  would  be  difficult.  But  I  do  know 
that  his  education  need  not  require  him  to  master  the  abstruse 
principles  of  science  and  mathematics  to  any  great  extent.  But, 
as  has  been  remarked  before,  the  more  a  man  knows  the  more 
valuable  he  is  in  an  emergency.  If  he  is  possessed  of  an  aver- 
age common  school  education  he  should  also,  during  his  ap- 
prenticeship, have  become  conversant  with  geometry,  advanced 
arithmetic,  mechanics,  etc.  The  important  part  of  these  stud- 
ies is  that  they  create  a  development  of  the  reasoning  facul- 
ties that  no  other  studies  can  give. 

In  expounding  a  theorem  in  geometry,  or  a  rule  in  arithme- 
tic or  mechanics  you  are  dealing  with  facts  which  cannot  be 
disputed  without  making  the  whole  principle  wrong.  Jurists, 
politicians,  diplomats,  logicians,  etc.,  have  all  studied  the  rules 
of  Euclid,  because  of  the  accurate,  incisive  method  of  thought 
which  results.  It  is  indeed  a  study  for  all  men,  especially  for 
foremen. 

But  technical  ability,  for  practical  purposes  in  a  factory  will 
be  nil,  if  a  foreman  is  unable  to  instruct  and  impart  to  his  men 
clearly  and  concisely  what  is  expected  of  them.  He  should  also 
be  able  to  illustrate  by  action  and  example  the  impulse  to  the 
whole  personnel  that  they  are  there  for  a  specific  purpose,  to  do 
things,  do  them  accurately  and  quickly.     He  should  combat  the 


326  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

listless,  get-nowhere  attitude  which  is  assumed  by  many  fore- 
men, who  are  anaemic  mentally  and  physically,  but  who  know 
how  to  "pass  the  buck" — pass  their  responsibility  to  others. 

"Safely  First"  and   the  Foreman 

The  new  factor  in  industry,  connnerce  and  manufacturing, 
which  is  known  as  the  safety-firsl  movement,  has  passed 
through  various  stages  of  development  in  a  very  few  years. 

It  is  now  universally  recognized  as  an  essential  factor  in 
the  safe  and  economical  operation  of  any  plant,  mill  or  fac- 
tory. Its  results  thus  far  have  fully  justified  the  claims  made 
for  it,  not  only  in  protecting  life,  limb  and  property,  but  in  pro- 
moting the  very  highest  efficiency-,  accuracy  and  the  truest 
economy  and  conservation  not  only  of  men,  but  of  materials 
also. 

It  will  yet  accomplish  much  more,  for  much  more  remains 
to  be  done,  but  it  cannot  do  this  save  through  the  earnest,  in- 
telligent, continuous  cooperation  of  the  foremen.  They  can  un- 
doubtedly either  make  or  mar  the  movement  in  the  shops  and 
factories.  With  their  assistance  and  endorsement  further  ad- 
vances can  be  made ;  without  this,  much  of  the  complete  pro- 
gram of  safety  first  will  be  nullified,  neglected  and  futile. 

This  industrial  necessity,  therefore,  has  become  a  prime 
requisite  in  the  education  of  every  foreman,  even  more  so  than 
that  of  other  officials  of  any  manufacturing  company.  He  is 
the  key  man  to  the  position  and  should  be  well  posted  by  read- 
ing the  good,  abundant  and  highly  attractive  literature  of  the 
science  of  safety  first ;  because  it  has  a  scientific  side  even 
more  important  than   its  humanitarian   side. 

The  good  foreman  can  promote  the  best  interests  of  his  em- 
ployers, as  well  as  the  best  interests  of  his  men,  by  constantly 
insisting  that  all  the  rules  and  regulations  made  and  laid  down 
for  their  protection  and  guidance  be  rigidly  enforced  and  ob- 
served. He  can  even  do  more  than  that  by  setting  a  uniform, 
consistent  daily  example  by  closely  observing  all  the  safety-first 
rules  himself. 

In  this  case  "example  speaks  louder  than  precepts."  The 
foreman  who  sets  the  example  by  vigorously  observing  all  the 
requirements  of  the  safety-first  rules  will  do  more  to  advance 
the  general  well  being  of  the  men  in  his  charge  than  any  other 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  327 

single  influence,  in  many  cases  more  than  all  other  influences 
combined.  He  is  or  should  be  law  and  example  combined  in 
one  personality  for  his  men. 


CREATING  A  CLASS  OF  SUPER-FOREMEN ' 

It  might  appear  to  the  higher  shop  executive  very  simple  tc 
hire  high-grade  foremen  who  are  competent  to  direct  work  by 
preliminary  planning  rather  than  to  invite  friction  in  the  or- 
ganization by  adding  an  intermediary  who  would  come  between 
the  executive  superintendent  and  his  departmental  foreman.  In 
fact  the  preliminary-planning  organization  which  some  organ- 
izers would  create  as  a  distinct  body  or  department  appears 
more  in  the  light  of  a  group  organization  of  superintendents 
of  each  individual  shop  department.  Each  of  these  would  be 
thoroughly  familiar  with  all  of  the  work,  tools  and  equipment 
in  his  department,  thoroughl}-  capable  of  planning  the  work  for 
his  men,  and  qualified  to  administer  discipline  through  his  sub- 
foremen  or  straw  bosses,  as  the  shop  foremen  become  when  so 
subservient  to  a  planning  department. 

Doubtless  the  idea  of  creating  a  planning  department  is  to 
take  intelligent  or  technical  men  and  train  them  for  this  work 
in  this  department,  but  it  is  questionable  whether  it  would  not 
be  far  more  satisfactory,  with  less  probability  for  interorganiza- 
tion  friction,  to  take  promising  candidates  for  the  position  of 
foreman  and  put  them  through  an  intensive  training,  each  in 
the  department  for  which  he  is  qualified  or  experienced,  to  fit 
them  for  their  work  in  general  preliminary  planning  methods. 
The  writer  has  been  in  some  of  our  large  modern  shops  where 
the  shop  foreman  has  on  his  own  initiative  taken  this  step,  and 
with  plenty  of  work  and  numbers  of  men  to  handle  the  foreman 
has  trained  one  or  more  subforemen  whose  sole  duty  it  was  to 
do  the  preliminary  work  of  planning  the  tools  and  operations 
for  each  piece  of  work. 

Greater  satisfaction  would  obtain  among  the  j^ounger  men 
of  a  shop  organization  if  they  knew  that  due  application  would 
qualify  them  for  advancement  rather  than  to  always  see  out- 
siders being  trained  for  the  task.  A  young  man,  shop  trained, 
familiar  with  the  parts  of  the  various  machines,  and  who  had 

1  By  J.  V.  Hunter.     American  Machinist.      48:865-6.      May  23,   1918. 


328  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

shown  diligence  in  night-school  classes,  would  probably  require 
even  a  shorter  period  of  training  to  qualify  him  to  begin  the 
preliminary  planning  of  departmental  work  than  would  an  out- 
side man  who  had  only  a  theoretical  or  technical  education. 
Besides,  the  shop  man,  after  being  trained  to  hold  a  position, 
would  be  satisfied  to  do  the  work  for  a  longer  period. 

The  duty  of  training  his  foreman  and  department  chiefs  in 
these  methods  should  develop  upon  the  superintendent.  How- 
ever, he  is  usuall}'  too  busy  to  accomplish  this  properly,  and 
generally  he  feels  that  he  has  done  his  duty  when  he  calls  the 
offending  foreman  "on  the  carpet,"  points  out  the  failings  of 
his  department,  censures  him,  gives  him  a  very  few  instructions 
as  to  what  he  wants  accomplished  and  lets  him  go  back  to  the 
shop  probably  as  unenlightened  as  before,  but  spurred  by  a 
burning  sense  of  indignation  and  a  desire  to  correct  conditions 
just  enough  to  avoid  getting  into  trouble  again. 

Methods  of  Training 

Now  if  the  average  foreman  w^as  competent  to  solve  all  these 
troubles  and  do  all  the  planning  for  his  department  he  would 
indeed  be  a  superman ;  but  the  only  way  to  reach  that  state  is 
by  long  and  careful  training — regular  schooling,  in  fact.  Such 
training  should  be  given  to  a  foreman  as  schooling,  but  never  to 
make  him  feel  that  he  is  being  censured.  He  should  be  trained 
so  that  when  problems  arise,  when  the  necessity  for  planning 
new  work  occurs  he,  as  the  man  on  the  job,  will  be  the  one  to 
whom  to  go  for  information;  not  to  someone  in  a  distant  office 
who  determines  feeds  and  speeds  with  a  slide  rule  and  not 
knowing  whether  the  scale  on  a  lot  of  castings  is  exceptionally 
hard  or  whether  or  not  the  tool  steel  will  stand  up  for  that 
particular  cut.  A  particular  box  tool  breaks — who  is  going  to 
put  into  immediate  service  another  of  different  general  type 
but  giving  the  same  results?  Why,  the  foreman  on  the  job,  of 
course,  not  the  slide-rule  man  in  an  office. 

For  a  large  shop  or  department  the  ideal  plan  would  be  to 
start  such  a  man  on  preliminary  planning  as  an  assistant  to 
the  foreman.  During  certain  hours  each  day  the  general  sup- 
erintendent, or  preferably  an  assistant  trained  for  this  w'ork,  or 
a  supervisor  of  preliminary  planning,  could  hold  intensive- 
training  classes   for  one   or  two  hours  two  or  three     times   a 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        329 

week  to  instruct  these  qualified  men  and  foremen,  giving  them 
only  a  general  outline  of  the  work  and  instructing  them  in  the 
details  of  how  to  plan  and  carry  it  out  successfully.  In  addi- 
tion each  man  must  receive  individual  training  and  instructions 
in  planning  and  the  methods  to  apply  to  his  own  department. 
For  this  a  short  period  every  day  or  two — it  needs  be  no  longer 
than  the  foreman  usually  spends  in  conferences — could  be  de- 
voted to  the  training.  The  remainder  of  the  man's  time  would 
be  spent  in  the  shop  in  order  to  familiarize  himself  by  prac- 
tice with  the  methods  outlined. 

Again,  as  assistant  to  the  foreman,  he  would  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  older  man's  training  and  experience,  and  the  plans 
made  by  their  mutual  consultations  could  be  more  readily  put 
into  effect.  Should  the  older  man  be  unable  to  improve  and 
keep  his  department  in  trim  the  younger  man  could  then  be 
advanced  without  disturbing  the  organization ;  but  should  the 
older  man  always  retain  necessary  executive  ability  to  govern 
his  shop  he  could  use  the  younger  man,  or  subforeman,  to  do 
the  preliminary  planning. 

When  an  assistant  foreman  is  made  a  foreman  he  should  be 
required  in  the  same  way  to  train  another  to  take  his  place  in 
case  of  illness  or  other  reason.  One  advantage  in  such  shop- 
trained  men  is  that  they  are  not  so  likely  to  leave  at  a  time 
when  they  begin  to  be  of  value. 

The  last  alternative,  that  of  going  to  outside  organizations 
to  do  preliminary  planning  work,  and  briefly  outlined  by  a  pre- 
vious writer,  leaves  the  shop  organization  always  reljdng  for 
advice  from  an  outsider,  and  it  curtails  the  initiative  spirit  of 
its  own  men.  While  such  a  consulting  business  might  in  the 
beginning  be  developed  by  a  few  firms  competent  to  advise,  it 
would  eventually  lead  to  the  formation  of  other  consulting  or- 
ganizations, some  of  which  would  be  no  more  competent  to 
direct  than  the  average  shop  foreman.  Under  such  a  system 
the  manufacturer  would  be  forced  to  carry  the  overhead  and 
business-getting  departments  of  an  outside  organization  from 
his  income  which  should  be  used  to  carry  his  own  overhead;  in 
other  words,  he  would  be  paying  outsiders  for  service,  the  cost 
of  which  should  be  devoted  to  the  betterment  of  his  necessary 
shop  management. 


CO-OPERATION  IN  MANAGEMENT 

INDUSTRIAL  COUNCILS^ 

I.    Letter  Addressed  by  the  Minister  of  Labour  to  the  Leading 
Employers'   Associations   and   Trade    Unions 

Ministry  of  Labour, 
Montagu     House, 
Whitehall,  S.  W.  I. 
20th  October,  1917. 
Sir: 

In  July  last  a  circular  letter  was  addressed  by  the  Ministry 
of  Labour  to  all  the  principal  Employers'  associations  and  Trade 
Unions  asking  for  their  views  on  the  proposals  made  in  the 
Report  of  the  Whitley  Committee  on  Joint  Standing  Industrial 
Councils,  a  futher  copy  of  which  is  enclosed.  As  a  result  of  the 
replies  which  have  been  received  from  a  large  number  of  Em- 
ployers' organizations  and  Trade  Unions  generally  favouring 
the  adoption  of  those  proposals,  the  War  Cabinet  have  decided 
to  adopt  the  Report  as  part  of  the  policy  which  they  hope  to  see 
carried  into  effect  in  the  field  of  industrial   reconstruction. 

In  order  that  the  precise  effect  of  this  decision  may  not  be 
misvmderstood,  I  desire  to  draw  attention  to  one  or  two  points 
which  have  been  raised  in  the  communications  made  to  the  Min- 
istry on  the  subject,  and  on  which  some  misapprehension  ap- 
pears to  exist  in  some  quarters. 

In  the  first  place,  fears  have  been  expressed  that  the  proposal 
to  set  up  Industrial  Councils  indicates  an  intention  to  introduce 
an  element  of  State  interference  which  has  hitherto  not  existed 
in  industry.  This  is  not  the  case.  The  formation  and  consti- 
tution of  the  Councils  must  be  principally  the  work  of  the  in- 
dustries themselves.  Although,  for  reasons  which  will  be  ex- 
plained later,  the  Government  are  very  anxious  that  such  Coun- 
cils  should  be   established   in   all   the   well-organized   industries 

*  The  Whitley  Report,  together  with  the  Letter  of  Minister  of  Labour 
explaining  the  Government's  view  of  its  proposals.  Published  by  the 
British  Ministry  of  Labour,   19 17. 


332  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  they  fully  realize  that  the  suc- 
cess of  the  scheme  must  depend  upon  a  general  agreement  a- 
mong  the  various  organizations  within  a  given  industry  and  a 
clearly  expressed  demand  for  the  creation  of  a  Council.  More- 
over, when  formed,  the  Councils  would  be  independent  bodies 
electing  their  own  officers  and  free  to  determine  their  own  func- 
tions and  procedure  with  reference  to  the  peculiar  needs  of 
each  trade.  In  fact,  they  would  be  autonomous  bodies,  and  they 
would,  in  effect,  make  possible  a  larger  degree  of  self-govern- 
ment in  industry  than  exists  to-day. 

Secondly,  the  Report  has  been  interpreted  as  meaning  that 
the  general  constitution  which  it  suggests  should  be  applied 
without  modification  to  each  industry.  This  is  entirely  con- 
trary to  the  view  of  the  Government  on  the  matter.  To  anyone 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  diverse  kinds  of  machinery  already 
in  operation,  and  the  varying  geographical  and  industrial  con- 
ditions which  affect  different  industries  it  will  be  obvious 
that  no  rigid  scheme  can  be  applied  to  all  of  them.  Each  in- 
dustry must  therefore  adapt  the  proposals  made  in  the  Re- 
port as  may  seem  most  suitable  to  its  own  needs.  In  some 
industries,  for  instance,  it  may  be  considered  by  both  employ- 
ers and  employed  that  a  system  of  Works  Committees  is  un- 
necessary owing  to  the  perfection  of  the  arrangements  al- 
ready in  operation  for  dealing  with  the  difficulties  arising  in 
particular  works  between  the  management  and  the  trade  union 
officials.  In  others  Works  Committees  have  done  very  valuable 
work  where  they  have  been  introduced  and  their  extension  on 
agreed  lines  deserves  every  encouragement.  Again,  in  indus- 
tries which  are  largely  based  on  district  organizations  it  will 
probably  be  found  desirable  to  assign  more  important  func- 
tions to  the  District  Councils  than  would  be  the  case  in  trades 
which  are  more  completely  centralised  in  national  bodies.  All 
these  questions  will  have  to  be  threshed  out  by  the  industries 
themselves  and  settled  in  harmony  with  their  particular  needs. 

Thirdly,  it  should  be  made  clear  that  representation  on  the 
Industrial  Councils  is  intended  to  be  on  the  basis  of  existing 
organizations  among  employers  and  workmen  concerned  in 
each  industry,  although  it  will,  of  course,  be  open  to  the  Coun- 
cils, when  formed,  to  grant  representation  to  any  new  bodies 
which  may  come  into  existence  and  which  may  be  entitled  to 
representation.     The  authority,  and  consequently  the  usefulness 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  333 

of  the  Councils  will  depend  entirely  on  the  extent  to  which  they 
represent  the  different  interests  and  enjoy  the  whole-hearted 
support  of  the  existing  organisations,  and  it  is  therefore  desir- 
able that  representation  should  be  determined  on  as  broad  a 
basis    as   possible. 

Lastly,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  scheme  is  intended  to 
promote  compulsory  arbitration.  This  is  certainly  not  the  case. 
Whatever  agreements  may  be  made  for  dealing  with  disputes 
must  be  left  to  the  industry  itself  to  frame,  and  their  efficacy 
must  depend  upon  the  voluntary  co-operation  of  the  organ- 
izations concerned  in  carrying  them  out. 

I  should  now  like  to  explain  some  of  the  reasons  which  have 
made  the  government  anxious  to  see  Industrial  Councils  estab- 
lished as  soon  as  possible  in  the  organized  trades.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  war  has  shown  the  need  for  frequent  consultation 
between  the  Government  and  the  chosen  representatives  of  both 
employers  and  workmen  on  vital  questions  concerning  those  in- 
dustries which  have  been  most  affected  by  war  conditions.  In 
some  instances  different  Government  Departments  have  ap- 
proached different  organizations  in  the  same  industry,  and  in 
many  cases  the  absence  of  joint  representative  bodies  which  can 
speak  for  their  industries  as  a  whole  and  voice  the  joint  opinion 
of  employers  and  workmen,  has  been  found  to  render  nego- 
tiations much  more  difficult  than  they  would  otherwise  have 
been.  The  case  of  the  cotton  trade,  where  the  industry  is  being 
regulated  during  a  very  difficult  time  by  a  Joint  Board  of  Con- 
trol, indicates  how  greatly  the  task  of  the  State  can  be  allevi- 
ated by  a  self-governing  body  capable  of  taking  charge  of  the 
interests  of  the  whole  industry.  The  problems  of  the  period  of 
transition  and  reconstruction  will  not  be  less  difficult  than  those 
which  the  war  has  created,  and  the  Government  accordingly  feels 
that  the  task  of  rebuilding  the  social  and  economic  fabric  on  a 
broader  and  surer  foundation  will  be  rendered  much  easier  if  in 
the  organized  trades  there  exist  representative  bodies  to  which 
the  various  questions  of  difficulty  can  be  referred  for  consid- 
eration and  advice  as  they  arise.  There  are  a  number  of  such 
questions  on  which  the  Government  will  need  the  united  and 
considered  opinion  of  each  large  industry,  such  as  the  demobili- 
sation of  the  forces,  the  re-settlement  of  munition  workers  in 
civil  industries,  apprenticeship  (especially  where  interrupted  by 
war  service),  the  training  and  employment  of  disabled  soldiers. 


334  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

and  the  control  of  raw  materials ;  and  the  more  it  is  able  to 
avail  itself  of  such  an  opinion  the  more  satisfactory  and  stable 
the  solution  of  these  questions  is  likely  to  be. 

Further,  it  will  I;e  necessary  in  the  national  interest  to  ensure 
a  settlement  of  the  more  permanent  questions  which  have 
caused  differences  between  employers  and  employed  in  the  past, 
on  such  a  basis  as  to  prevent  tlie  occurrence  of  disputes  and  of 
serious  stoppages  in  tlie  difiicult  period  during  which  the  prob- 
lems just  referred  to  will  have  to  be  solved.  It  is  felt  that  this 
object  can  only  be  secured  by  the  existence  of  permanent  bodies 
on  the  lines  suggested  by  the  Whitley  Report,  which  will  be  cap- 
able not  merely  of  dealing  with  disputes  when  they  arise,  but  of 
settling  the  big  questions  at  issue  so  far  as  possible  on  such  a 
basis  as  to  prevent  serious  conflicts  arising  at  all. 

The  above  statement  of  the  functions  of  the  Councils  is  not 
intended  to  be  exhaustive,  but  only  to  indicate  some  of  the  more 
immediate  questions  which  they  will  be  called  upon  to  deal  with 
when  set  up.  Their  general  objects  are  described  in  the  words 
of  the  Report  as  being  "to  offer  to  workpeople  the  means  of  at- 
taining improved  conditions  of  employment  and  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  comfort  generally,  and  involve  the  enlistment  of  their  ac- 
tive and  continuous  co-operation  in  the  promotion  of  industry." 
Some  further  specific  questions,  which  the  Councils  might  con- 
sider, were  indicated  by  the  committee  in  paragraph  i6  of  the 
Report,  and  it  will  be  for  the  Councils  themselves  to  determine 
what  matters  they  shall  deal  with.  Futher,  such  Councils  would 
obviously  be  the  suitable  bodies  to  make  representations  to  the 
Government  as  to  legislation,  which  they  think  would  be  of  ad- 
vantage to  their  mdustry. 

In  order,  tlicrefore,  that  the  Councils  may  be  able  to  fulfil 
the  duties  which  they  will  be  asked  to  undertake,  and  that  they 
may  have  the  requisite  status  for  doing  so,  the  Government 
desires  it  to  be  understood  that  the  Councils  will  be  recognised 
as  the  official  standing  Consultative  Committees  to  the  Govern- 
ment on  all  future  questions  affecting  the  industries  which  they 
represent,  and  that  they  will  be  the  normal  channel  through 
which  the  opinion  and  experience  of  an  industry  will  be  sought 
on  all  questions  with  which  the  industry  is  concerned.  It  will 
be  seen,  therefore,  that  it  is  intended  that  Industrial  Councils 
should  play  a  definite  and  permanent  part  in  the  economic  life 
of  the  country,  and  the  Government   feels  that  it  can  rely   on 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  335 

both  employers  and  workmen  to  co-operate  in   order  to  make 
that  part  a  worthy  one. 

I  hope,  therefore,  that  you  will  take  this  letter  as  a  formal  re- 
quest to  your  organization  on  the  part  of  the  Government  to 
consider  the  question  of  carr3dng  out  the  recommendations 
of  the  Report  so  far  as  they  are  applicable  to  your  industry. 
The  ministry  of  Labour  will  be  willing  to  give  every  assistance 
in  its  power  in  the  establishment  of  Industrial  Councils,  and 
will  be  glad  to  receive  suggestions  as  to  the  way  in  which  it  can 
be  given  most  effectively.  In  particular,  it  will  be  ready  to  as- 
sist in  the  convening  of  representative  conferences  to  discuss  the 
establishment  of  Councils,  to  provide  secretarial  assistance  and 
to  be  represented,  if  desired  in  a  consultative  capacity  at  the 
preliminary  meetings.  The  Ministry  will  be  glad  to  be  kept  in- 
formed of  any  progress  made  in  the  direction  of  forming  Coun- 
cils. Although  the  scheme  is  only  intended,  and  indeed  can  only 
be  applied,  in  trades  which  are  well  organized  on  both  sides, 
I  would  point  out  that  it  rests  with  those  trades  which  do  not 
at  present  possess  a  sufficient  organization  to  bring  it  about  if 
they  desire  to  apply  it  to  themselves. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  again  emphasise  the  pressing  need 
for  the  representative  organizations  of  employers  and  work- 
people to  come  together  in  the  organized  trades  and  to  prepare 
themselves  for  the  problems  of  reconstruction  by  forming  Coun- 
cils competent  to  deal  with  them.  The  Government  trusts  that 
they  will  approach  these  problems  not  as  two  opposing  forces 
each  bent  on  getting  as  much  and  giving  as  little  as  can  be 
contrived,  but  as  forces  having  a  common  interest  in  working 
together  for  the  welfare  of  their  industr}-,  not  merelj^ 
for  the  sake  of  those  concerned  in  it,  but  also  for  the  sake 
of  the  nation  which  depends  so  largely  on  its  industries  for  its 
well-being.  If  the  spirit  which  has  enabled  all  classes  to  over- 
come by  willing  co-operation  the  innumerable  dangers  and  dif- 
ficulties which  have  beset  us  during  the  war  is  applied  to  the 
problems  of  Reconstruction,  I  am  convinced  that  they  can  be 
solved  in  a  way  which  will  lay  the  foundation  of  the  future 
prosperity  of  the  country  and  of  those  engaged  in  its  great  in- 
dustries. 

I   am,   Sir, 

Your   obedient   servant, 

GEO.  H.  ROBERTS. 


336  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Industrial  cotincils;  report  of  the  reconstruction  committee  on 
relations  between  employers  and  employed 

The  Committee  consisted  of  the  following  members: 

The   Right  Hon.  J.   H.   Whitley,  M.P.,   Chairman.      (Chairman   of   Com- 
mittees,  House   of   Commons.) 

Mr.  F.   S.   Button   (formerly  Member  of  Executive  Council,  Amalgamated 
Society    of    Engineers). 

Sir  G.  J.  Carter,  K.B.E.   (Chairman,  Shipbuilding  Employers'  Federation). 

Professor   S.   J.    Chapman,   C.B.E.    (Professor   of   Political    Economy,   Uni- 
versity   of   Manchester. 

Sir    Gilbert   Claughton,    Bart.      (Chairman,    London   and    North   Western 
Railway    Company). 

Mr.  J.  R.  Clynes,  M.P.  (President,  National  Union  of  General  Workers). 

Mr.  J.   A.   HoBSON. 

Miss   Susan   Lawrence   (Member  of  London   County  Council  and  Member 
of  the   Executive  Committee  of  the  Women's  Trade  Union   League). 

Mr.   J.   J.    Mallon    (Secretary,    National   Anti-Sweating   League). 

Sir    Thos.    a.    Ratcliffe-Ellis    (Secretary,    Mining    Association    of    Great 
Britain). 

Mr.  Robert  Smillie  (President,  Miners'  Federation  of  Great  Britain). 

Mr.   Allan   M.   Smith    (Chairman,   Engineering  Employers'   Federation). 

Miss   Mona   Wilson    (National    Health   Insurance   Commissioner). 
Mr.    H.    J.    Wilson,    Ministry    of    Labour, 
Mr.   Arthur   Greenwood, 

To  the  Right  Honourable  D.  Lloyd  George,  M.P.,  Prime  Min- 
ister 

Sir :  We  have  the  honour  to  submit  the  following  Interim 
Report  on  Joint  Standing  Industrial  Councils. 

2.  The  terms  of  reference  to  the  Sub-Committee  are : 

"(i)To  make  and  consider  suggestions  for  securing  a  permanent  im- 
provement   in    the    relations    between    employers    and    workmen. 

"(2)  To  recommend  means  for  securing  that  industrial  conditions 
affecting  the  relations  between  employers  and  workmen  shall  be  systemati- 
cally reviewed  by  those  concerned,  with  a  view  to  improving  conditions  in 
the  future." 

3.  After  a  general  consideration  of  our  duties  in  relation  to 
to  the  matters  referred  to  us,  we  decided  first  to  address  our- 
selves to  the  problem  of  establishing  permanently  improved  re- 
lations between  employers  and  employed  in  the  main  industries 
of  the  country,  in  which  there  exist  representative  organizations 
on  both  sides.  The  present  report  accordingly  deals  more  espe- 
cially with  these  trades.  We  are  proceeding  with  the  considera- 
tion of  the  problems  connected  with  the  industries  which  are 
less  well  organized. 

4.  We  appreciate  that  under  the  pressure  of  the  war  both 
employers  and  workpeople  and  their  organizations  are  very 
much  pre-occupied,  but,  notwithstanding,  we  believe  it  to  be  of 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  337 

the  highest  importance  that  our  proposals  should  be  put  be- 
fore those  concerned  without  delay,  so  that  employers  and  em- 
ployed may  meet  in  the  near  future  and  discuss  the  problems 
before  them. 

5.  The  circumstances  of  the  present  time  are  admitted  on  all 
sides  to  offer  a  great  opportunity  for  securing  a  permanent  im- 
provement in  the  relations  between  employers  and  employed, 
while  failure  to  utilize  the  opportunity  may  involve  the  nation 
in  grave  industrial  difficulties  at  the  end  of  the  war. 

It  is  generally  allowed  that  the  war  almost  enforced  some 
reconstruction  of  industry,  and  in  considering  the  subjects  re- 
ferred to  us  we  have  kept  in  view  the  need  for  securing  in  the 
development  of  reconstruction  the  largest  possible  measure  of 
co-operation  between  employers  and  employed. 

In  the  interests  of  the  community  it  is  vital  that  after  the 
war  the  co-operation  of  all  classes,  established  during  the  war, 
should  continue,  and  more  especially  with  regard  to  the  relations 
between  emplojers  and  employed.  For  securing  improvement  in 
the  latter,  it  is  essential  that  any  proposals  put  forward  should 
offer  the  workpeople  the  means  of  attaining  improved  condi- 
tions of  employment  and  a  higher  standard  of  comfort  gener- 
ally, and  involve  the  enlistment  of  their  active  and  continuous 
co-operation   in  the  promotion  of  industry. 

To  this  end,  the  establishment  for  each  industry  of  an  organ- 
ization, representative  of  employers  and  workpeople,  to  have 
as  its  object  the  regular  consideration  of  matters  affecting  the 
progress  and  well-being  of  the  trade  from  the  point  of  view  of 
all  those  engaged  in  it,  so  far  as  this  is  consistent  with  the  gen- 
eral interest  of  the  community,  appears  to  us  necessary. 

6.  Many  complicated  problems  have  arisen  during  the  war 
which  have  bearing  both  on  employers  and  workpeople,  and 
may  affect  relations  between  them.  It  is  clear  that  industrial 
conditions  will  need  careful  handling  if  grave  difficulties  and 
strained  relations  are  to  be  avoided  after  the  war  has  ended. 
The  precise  nature  of  the  problems  to  be  faced  naturally  varies 
from  industry  to  industry,  and  even  from  branch  to  branch 
within  the  same  industry.  Their  treatment  consequently  will 
need  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  circumstances  of 
each  trade,  and  such  knowledge  is  to  be  found  only  among 
those   directly  connected  with  the  trade. 


338  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

7.  With  a  view  to  providing  means  for  carrying  out  the 
poHcy  outlined  above,  we  recommend  that  His  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment should  propose  without  delay  to  the  various  associa- 
tions of  employers  and  employed  the  formation  of  Joint 
Standing  Industrial  Councils  in  the  several  industries,  where 
they  do  not  already  exist,  composed  of  representatives  of  em- 
ployers and  employed,  regard  being  paid  to  the  various  sec- 
tions of  the  industry  and  the  various  classes  of  labour  en- 
gaged. 

8.  The  appointment  of  a  chairman  or  chairmen  should,  we 
think,  be  left  to  the  Councils  who  may  decide  that  these  should 
be— 

(1)  A  Chairman   for  each  side  of  the  Council; 

(2)  A  Chairman  and  Vice-Chairman  selected  from  the  members  of 
the   Council    (one  from   each  side   of  the   Council) ; 

(3)  A  Chairman  chosen  by  the  Council  from  independent  persons 
outside    the    industry;     or 

(4)  A  Chairman  nominated  by  such  person  or  authority  as  the  Coun- 
cil may  determine  or,  faiHng  agreement,  by  the   Government. 

9.  The  Councils  should  meet  at  regular  and  frequent  inter- 
vals. 

10.  Tlie  objects  to  which  tlie  consideration  of  the  Councils 
should  be  directed  should  be  appropriate  matters  affecting  the 
several  industries  and  particularly  the  establishment  of  a 
closer  co-operation  between  employers  and  employed.  Ques- 
tions connected  with  demobilisation  will  call  for  early  attention. 

11.  One  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  problem,  as  it  at  first  pre- 
sents itself,  consists  of  the  guarantees  given  by  the  Government, 
with  Parliamentary  sanction,  and  the  various  undertakings  en- 
tered into  by  employers,  to  restore  the  Trade  Union  rules  and 
customs  suspended  during  the  war.  While  this  does  not  mean 
that  all  the  lessons  learnt  durini;-  the  war  should  be  ignored,  it 
does  mean  that  the  definite  co-operation  and  acquiescence  by 
both  employers  and  employed  must  be  a  condition  of  any  setting 
aside  of  these  guarantees  or  undertakings,  and  that,  if  new  ar- 
rangements are  to  be  reached,  in  themselves  more  satisfactory 
to  all  parties  but  not  in  strict  accordance  with  the  guarantees, 
they  must  be  the  joint  work  of  employers  and  employed. 

12.  The  matters  to  be  considered  by  the  Councils  must  in- 
evitably  differ   widely   from   industry  to  industry,  as  different 

circumstances  and  conditions  call  for  different  treatment,  but 
we  are  of  opinion  that  the  suggestions  set  forth  below  ought 
to  be  taken  into  account,  subject  to  such  modification  in  each 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        339 

case  as  may  serve  to  adapt  them  to  the  needs  of  the  various 
industries. 

13.  In  the  well-organized  industries,  one  of  the  first 
questions  to  be  considered  should  be  the  establishment  of  local 
and  works  organizations  to  supplement  and  make  effective  the 
work  of  the  central  bodies.  It  is  not  enough  to  secure  co- 
operation at  the  centre  between  the  national  organizations;  it 
is  equally  necessary  to  enlist  the  activity  and  support  of  em- 
ployers and  employed  in  the  districts  and  in  individual  estab- 
lishments. The  National  Industrial  Council  should  not  be  re- 
garded as  complete  in  itself;  what  is  needed  is  a  triple  organ- 
ization— in  the  workshops,  the  districts,  and  nationality.  More- 
over, it  is  essential  that  the  organization  at  each  of  these  three 
stages  should  proceed  on  a  common  principle,  and  that  the 
greatest  measure  of  common  action  between  them  should  be 
secured. 

14.  With  this  end  in  view,  we  are  of  opinion  that  the 
following  proposals  should  be  laid  before  the  National  In- 
dustrial  Councils : — 

(a)  That  District  Councils,  representative  of  the  Trade  Unions  and 
of  the  Employers'  Association  in  the  industry,  should  be  created,  or  de- 
veloped out  of  the  existing  machinery  for  negotiation  in  the  various  trades. 

(b)  The  Works  Committees,  representative  of  the  management  and  of 
the  workers  employed,  should  be  instituted  in  particular  works  to  act  in 
close  co-operation   with  the   district  and  national  machinery. 

As  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  scheme  making 
provision  for  these  Committees  should  be  such  as  to  secure 
the  support  of  the  Trade  Union  and  Employer's  Associations 
concerned,  its  design  should  be  a  matter  for  agreement  between 
these  organizations. 

Just  as  regular  meetings  and  continuity  of  co-operation  are 
essential  in  the  case  of  the  National  Industrial  Councils,  so  they 
seem  to  be  necessary  in  the  case  of  the  district  and  works  or- 
ganizations. The  object  is  to  secure  co-operation  by  granting  to. 
workpeople  a  greater  share  in  the  consideration  of  matters  af- 
fecting their  industry,  and  this  can  only  be  achieved  by  keeping 
employers  and  workpeople  in  constant  touch. 

15.  The  respective  functions  of  Works  Committees,  District 
Councils,  and  National  Councils  will  no  doubt  require  to  be  de- 
termined separately  in  accordance  with  the  varying  conditions 
of  different  industries.  Care  will  need  to  be  taken  in  each 
case  to  delimit  accurately  their  respective  functions,  in  order 
to  avoid  overlapping  and  resulting  friction.    For  instance,  where 


340  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

conditions  of  employment  are  determined  by  national  agree- 
ments, the  District  Councils  or  Works  Committees  should  not 
be  allowed  to  contract  out  of  conditions  so  laid  down,  nor, 
where  conditions  are  determined  by  local  agreements,  should 
such  power  be  allowed  to  Works  Committees. 

i6.  Among  the  questions  with  which  it  is  suggested  that  the 
National  Councils  should  deal  or  allocate  to  District  Councils 
or  Works  Committees  the  following  may  be  selected  for  special 
mention    : — 

Ci)  The  better  utilisation  of  the  practical  knowledge  and  experience 
of  the  workpeople. 

(ii)  Means  for  securing  to  the  workpeople  a  greater  share  in  and  re- 
sponsibility for  the  determination  and  observance  of  the  conditions  under 
which   their   work   is   carried   on. 

(iii)  The  settlement  of  the  general  principles  governing  the  conditions 
of  employment,  including  the  methods  of  fixing,  paying,  and  readjusting 
wages,  having  regard  to  the  need  for  securing  to  the  workpeople  a  share 
in   the  increased  prosperity  of  the  industry. 

(iv)  The  establishment  of  regular  methods  of  negotiation  for  issues 
arising  between  employers  and  workpeople,  with  a  view  both  to  the  pre- 
vention of  differences,  and  to  their  better  adjustment  when  they  appear. 

(v)  Means  of  ensuring  to  the  workpeople  the  greatest  possible  security 
of  earnings  and  employment,  without  undue  restriction  upon  change  of 
occupation   or   employer. 

(vi)  Methods  of  fixing  and  adjusting  earnings,  piecework  prices,  &c., 
and  of  dealing  with  the  many  difficulties  which  arise  with  regard  to  the 
method  and  amount  of  payment  apart  from  the  fixing  of  general  standard 
rates,  which  are  already  covered  by  paragraph   (iii). 

(vii)     Technical   education  and  training. 

(viii)      Industrial   research   and  the   full   utilisation   of   its   results. 

(ix)  The  provision  of  facilities  for  the  full  consideration  and  utilisa- 
tion of  inventions  and  improvement  designed  by  workpeople,  and  for  the 
adequate  safeguarding  of  the  rights  of  the  designers  of  such  improvements. 

(x)  Improvements  of  processes,  machinery  and  organisation  and  ap- 
propriate questions  relating  to  management  and  the  examination  of  indus- 
trial experiments,  with  special  reference  to  cooperation  in  carrying  new 
ideas  into  effect  and  full  consideration  of  the  workpeople's  point  of  view 
in  relation  to  them. 

(xi)     Proposed  legislation  affecting  the  industry. 

17.  The  methods  by  which  the  functions  of  the  proposed 
Councils  should  be  correlated  to  those  of  joint  bodies  in  the  dif- 
ferent districts,  and  in  the  various  works  within  the  districts, 
must  necessarily  vary  according  to  the  trade.  It  may,  therefore, 
be  the  best  policy  to  leave  it  to  the  trades  themselves  to  form- 
ulate schemes  suitable  to  their  special  circumstances,  it  being  un- 
derstood that  it  is  essential  to  secure  in  each  industry  the  fullest 
measure  of  co-operation  between  employers  and  employed,  both 
generally,  through  the  National  Councils,  and  specifically, 
through  district  Committees  and  workshop  Committees : 

18.  It  would  seem  advisable  that  the  Government  should  put 
the  proposals  relating  to  National  Industrial  Councils  before 
the  employers'  and  workpeople's  associations  and  request  them 
to  adopt  such  measures  as  are  needful  for  their  establishment 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  341 

where  they  do  not  already  exist.     Suitable  steps  should  also  be 
taken,  at  the  proper  time,  to  put  the  matter  before  the  general  public. 

19.  In  forwarding  the  proposals  to  the  parties  concerned, 
we  think  the  Government  should  offer  to  be  represented  in  an 
advisory  capacity  at  the  preliminary  meetings  of  a  Council,  if 
the  parties  so  desire.  We  are  also  of  opinion  that  the  Govern- 
ment should  undertake  to  supply  to  the  various  Councils  such 
information  on  industrial  subjects  as  may  be  available  and  likely 
to  prove  of  value. 

20.  It  has  been  suggested  that  means  must  be  devised  to 
safeguard  the  interests  of  the  community  against  possible  ac- 
tion of  an  anti-social  character  on  the  part  of  the  Councils.  We 
have,  however,  here  assumed  that  the  Councils,  in  their  work  of 
promoting  the  interests  of  their  own  industries,  will  have  regard 
for  the  national  interest.  If  they  fulfill  their  functions  they 
will  be  the  best  builders  of  national  prosperity.  The  State  never 
parts  with  its  inherent  over-riding  power,  but  such  power  may 
be  least  needed  when  least  obtruded. 

21.  It  appears  to  us  that  it  may  be  desirable  at  some  later 
stage  for  the  State  to  give  the  sanction  of  law  to  agreements 
made  by  the  Councils,  but  the  initiative  in  this  direction  should 
come  from  the  Councils  themselves. 

22.  The  plans  sketched  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs  are  ap- 
plicable in  the  form  in  which  they  are  given  only  to  industries 
in  which  there  are  responsible  associations  of  employers  and 
workpeople  which  can  claim  to  be  fairly  representative.  The 
case  of  the  less  well-organized  trades  or  sections  of  a  trade  nec- 
essarily needs  further  consideration.  We  hope  to  be  in  a  position 
shortly  to  put  forward  recommendations  that  will  prepare  the 
way  for  the  active  utilization  in  these  trades  of  the  same  prac- 
tical co-operation  as  is  foreshadowed  in  the  proposals  made 
above   for  the   more   highly-organized   trades. 

23.  It  may  be  desirable  to  state  here  our  considered  opin- 
ion that  an  essential  condition  of  securing  a  permanent  improve- 
ment in  the  relation  between  employers  and  employed  is  that 
there  should  be  adequate  organization  on  the  part  of  both  em- 
ployers and  workpeople.  The  proposals  outlined  for  joint  co- 
operation throughout  the  several  industries  depend  for  their 
ultimate  success  upon  there  being  such  organization  on  botli 
sides ;  and  such  organization  is  necessary  also  to  provide  means 
whereby  the  arrangements  and  agreements  made  for  the  indus- 
tries may  be  effectively  carried  out. 


342  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

24.  We  have  thought  it  well  to  refrain  from  making  sug- 
gestions or  offering  opinions  with  regard  to  such  matters  as 
profit-sharinp,  co-partnership,  or  particular  systems  of  wages, 
etc.  It  would  be  impracticable  for  us  to  make  any  useful  gen- 
eral recommendations  on  such  matters,  having  regard  to  the 
varying  conditions  in  different  trades.  We  are  convinced,  more- 
over, that  a  permanent  improvement  in  the  relations  between  em- 
ployers and  employed  must  be  founded  upon  somcthng  other 
than  a  cash  basis.  What  is  wanted  is  that  the  workpeople 
should  have  a  greater  opportunity  of  participating  in  the  discus- 
sion about  and  adjustment  of  those  parts  of  industry  by  which 
they  are  most  affected. 

25.  The  schemes  recommended  in  this  Report  are  intended 
not  merely  for  the  treatment  of  industrial  problems  when  they 
have  become  acute,  but  also,  and  more  especially,  to  prevent 
their  becoming  acute.  We  believe  that  regular  meetings  to  dis- 
cuss industrial  questions,  apart  from  and  prior  to  any  differences 
with  regard  to  them  that  may  have  begun  to  cause  friction, 
will  materially  reduce  the  number  of  occasions  on  which,  in 
the  view  of  either  employers  or  employed,  it  is  necessary  to 
contemplate  recourse  to  a  stoppage  of  work. 

26.  We  venture  to  hope  that  representative  men  in  each  in- 
dustry, with  pride  in  their  calling  and  care  for  its  place  as  a 
contributor  to  the  national  well-being,  will  come  together  in  the 
manner  here  suggested,  and  apply  themselves  to  promoting  in- 
dustrial harmony  and  efficiency  and  removing  the  obstacles  that 
have   hitherto   stood   in   the   way. 

We  have  the  honour  to  be.  Sir, 

Your    obedient   Servants, 

J.    H.    Whitley,    Chairman 


F.    S.    Button 

A.    Susan    Lawrence 

Geo.    J.    Carter 

J.  J.  Mallon 

S.   J.    Chapman 

Thos.    R.    Ratcliffe-Ellis 

G.   H.   Claughton 

RoBT.     S  MILLIE 

J.  R.  Clynes 

Allan    M.    Smith 

J.     A.     HOBSON 

Mona   Wilson 

H.  J.   Wilson, 

Arthur  Greenwood, 

Secretaries. 

8th  March,   1917. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  J43 

Appendix 

The  following  questions  were  addressed  by  the  Reconstruc- 
tion Committee  to  the  Sub-Committee  on  the  Relations  between 
Employers  and  Employed  in  order  to  make  clear  certain  points 
which  appeared  to  call  for  further  elucidation.  The  answers 
given  are  subjoined. 

Q.  I.  hi  zvhat  classes  of  Industries  does  the  Iiticrim  Re- 
port propose  that  Industrial  Coiiucils  shall  be  established? 
What   basis   of   classification   has   the   Sub-Committee   in   viezvf 

A.  I.  It  has  been  suggested  that,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
sidering the  establishment  of  Industrial  Councils,  or  other 
bodies  designed  to  assist  in  the  improvement  of  relations  be- 
tween employers  and  employed,  the  various  industries  should 
be  grouped  into  three  classes — (a)  industries  in  which  organi- 
zation on  the  part  of  employers  and  employed  is  sufficiently 
developed  to  render  the  Councils  representative;  (b)  indus- 
tries in  which  either  as  regards  employers  and  employed,  or 
both,  the  degree  of  organization,  though  considerable,  is  less 
marked  than  in  (a)  and  is  insufficient  to  be  regarded  as  repre- 
sentative; and  (c)  industries  in  which  organization  is  so  imper- 
fect, either  as  regards  employers  or  employed,  or  both,  that  no 
Associations  can  be  said  adequately  to  represent  those  engaged 
in  the  trade. 

It  will  be  clear  that  an  analysis  of  industries  will  show  a 
number  which  are  on  the  border  lines  between  these  groups, 
and  special  consideration  will  have  to  be  given  to  such  trades. 
So  far  as  groups  (a) and  (c)  are  concerned,  a  fairly  large 
number  of  trades  can  readily  be  assigned  to  them;  group  (b) 
is  necessarily  more  indeterminate. 

For  trades  in  group  (a)  the  Committee  have  proposed  the 
establishment  of  Joint  Standing  Industrial  Councils  in  the 
several  trades.  In  dealing  with  the  various  industries  it  may 
be  necessary  to  consider  specially  the  case  of  parts  of  indus- 
tries in   group    (a)    where  organization   is  not   fully   developed. 

Q.  2.  Is  the  machinery  proposed  intended  to  be  in  addition 
to  or  in  substitution  for  existing  machinery  f  Is  it  t>ro posed 
that  existing  machinery  should  be  superseded?  By  "existing 
machinery"  is  meant  Conciliation  Boards  and  all  other  organ- 
isations for  joint  conference  and  discussion  between  employ- 
ers and   employed. 


344  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

A.  2.  In  most  organized  trades  there  already  exist  joint 
bodies  for  particular  purposes.  It  is  not  proposed  that  the 
Industrial  Councils  should  necessarily  disturb  these  existing 
bodies.  A  council  would  be  free,  if  it  chose  and  if  the  bodies 
concerned  approved,  to  merge  existing  Committees,  etc.,  in  the 
Council  or  to  link  them  with  the  Council  as   Sub-Committees. 

Q.  3.  Is  it  understood  that  membership  in  the  Councils  is 
to  be  confined  to  representatives  elected  by  Employers'  Associ- 
ations and  Trade  Unions?  What  is  the  view  of  the  Sub-Com- 
mittee regarding  the  entry  of  new  organisations  established 
after    the    Councils   have    been   set    up? 

A.  3.  It  is  intended  that  the  Councils  should  be  composed 
only  of  representatives  of  Trade  Unions  and  Employers'  As- 
sociations, and  that  new  organizations  should  be  admitted 
only  with  the  approval  of  the  particular  side  of  the  Council  of 
which  the  organization  would  form  a  part. 

Q.  4.  (a) — Is  it  intended  that  decisions  reached  by  the 
Councils  shall  be  binding  upon  the  bodies  comprising  themf 
If  so,  is  such  binding  effect  to  be  conditional  upon  the  con- 
sent of  each  Employers'  Association  or  Trade.  Union  affected? 

A.  4.  (a)  It  is  contemplated  that  agreements  reached  by 
Industrial  Councils  should  (whilst  not,  of  course,  possessing 
the  binding  force  of  law)  carry  with  them  the  same  obligation 
of  observance  as  exists  in  the  case  of  other  agreements  between 
Employers'  Associations  and  Trade  Unions.  A  Council,  being 
on  its  workmen's  side  based  on  the  Trade  Unions  concerned  in 
the  industry,  its  power  or  authority  could  only  be  such  as  the 
constituent  Trade  Unions  freely  agreed  to. 

Q.  4.  (b)  In  particular,  is  it  intended  that  all  pledges  given 
either  by  the  Government  or  employers  for  the  restoration 
of  Trade  Union  rules  and  practices  after  the  war  shall  be  re- 
deemed without  qualification  unless  the  particular  Trade  Union 
concerned  agrees  to  alteration;  or,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  In- 
dustrial Council  shall  have  power  to  decide  such  questions  by 
a  majority  vote  of  the  ivorkmen's  representatives  from  all  the 
Trade  Unions  in  the  industry? 

A.  4.  (b)  It  is  clearly  intended  that  all  pledges  relating  to 
the  restoration  of  Trade  Union  rules  shall  be  redeemed  with- 
out qualification   unless  the   particular   Trade  Union   concerned 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  345 

agrees  to  alteration;  and  it  is  not  intended  that  the  Council 
shall  have  power  to  decide  such  questions  by  a  majority  vote 
of  the  workmen's  representatives  from  all  the  Trade  Unions 
in   the   industry. 


WORKS  COMMITTEES' 

Introduction 

The  extent  of  the  existence  of  Works  Committees  before 
the  war  is  largely  a  matter  of  definition.  Our  estimate  of  their 
scope  will  vary  according  as  we  give  the  term  a  wide  interpreta- 
tion, or  confine  it  to  committees  representative  of  all  the  work- 
people in  an  establishment.  Works  Committees  in  this  latter 
sense  of  the  term  existed  before  the  war  in  various  industries, 
and  in  some  instances  they  had  been  in  existence  for  many 
years.  If  the  term  is  interpreted  in  a  wide  sense,  and  taken  to 
include  various  kinds  of  committees,  such  as  those  representative 
of  individual  trades  or  departments,  or  those  which  have  come 
into  existence  at  particular  times  and  for  limited  purposes,  the 
number  in  existence  before  the  war  is  greatly  increased.  In 
certain  industries,  however,  notably  engineering,  the  conditions  of 
war  have  produced  such  a  change  in  both  the  form  and  function 
of  workshop  organization,  that  the  discussion  of  the  general 
idea  of  Works  Committees  may  be  said  to  have  developed  out  of 
those  conditions.  Since,  however,  the  Works  Committee,  on  the 
whole,  springs  from  the  common  methods  of  trade  union  organ- 
ization inside  the  workshop,  as  they  existed  long  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war,  some  reference  to  these  methods  is  neces- 
sary as  an  introduction  to  this  report  upon  some  of  the  com- 
mittees which  are  now  in  operation. 

Before  this  works  organization  is  considered,  it  may  be  noted 
that  certain  of  the  immediate  causes  which  have  led  to  the  rise 
of  works  committees  during  the  war — the  methods  of  remunera- 
tion (piecework  or  profit-sharing  or  bonus  on  output),  welfare, 
collections  for  charity,  and,  to  some  extent,  dilution  also — were 
already  operative  in  the  formation  of  earlier  Works  Commit- 
tees. 

1  From  Report  of  an  Inquiry  into  Works  Committees  British  Ministry 
of  Labour.      March,    19 18. 


346  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


Works  Committees  Before  the  War 

The  majority  of  Trade  Unions  have  official  shop  stewards, 
though  these  officials  may  be  known  by  some  other  name — such 
as  "shop  delegates,"  "works  representatives,"  "collectors,"  "yard 
committee-men,"  or,  in  one  case  at  least,  "works  directors."  In 
certain  cases  also  the  name  committee — Watch  or  Vigilant  Com- 
mittee— is  attached  to  the  body  of  shop  stewards  in  an  establish- 
ment. It  may  even  be  said  that  the  Works  Committee  is  older 
than  trade  unionism;  the  "chapel,"  for  instance,  (the  ancient  or- 
ganization of  the  workmen  in  each  printing  office),  goes  back 
much  farther  than  the  end  of  the  17th  century.  Such  shop  clubs 
were  not  confined  to  any  one  industry.  They  were,  however, 
quite  different  things  from  a  works  organization  formed  of  rep- 
resentatives of  permanent  Trade  Unions,  and  would  now  be 
represented  by  a  committee  of  workers  in  a  non-Union  shop. 
To-day  the  duties  of  the  "chapel,"  as  laid  down  in  the  rules  of 
various  unions  in  the  industry,  include  those  discharged  by  shop 
stewards  in  many  other  trades.  Apart  from  (i)  functions  ob- 
viously intended  to  sustain  the  fabric  of  the  Trade  Union — the 
collection  of  dues,  the  interrogation  of  defaulters  and  newcom- 
ers, and  the  like — the  duties  of  shop  stewards  are  stated  in  the 
rules  of  different  Unions  to  include  (2)  the  regular  supply  to  the 
branch  or  district  committee  of  information  respecting  any  en- 
croachment upon  recognized  Trade  Union  conditions,  participa- 
tion in  deputations  to  the  management  in  connection  with  griev- 
ances, the  calling  of  shop  meetings  of  the  members  to  discuss 
grievances,  etc.  The  stewards  are  in  one  case  held  "responsible 
for  the  conduct  of  the  shop  according  to  rules."  The  actual 
degree  of  organization  of  the  shop  stewards  varies  among  the 
Trade  Unions.  In  some  cases  all  the  shop  stewards  of  a  Union 
in  a  district  hold  regular  meetings  once  a  month  with  the  dis- 
trict committee  of  the  Union.  Certain  Unions  supply  their  shop 
stewards  with  official  cards.  In  other  cases,  however,  there  is 
no  regular  machinery  for  consultation  between  the  shop  stewards 
and  the  Union  officials,  and  no  certificates  of  official  recognition 
are  supplied  to  the  shop  stewards.  There  is  variety  also  in  re- 
gard to  the  election  and  the  deposition  of  shop  stewards ;  some 
hold  office  for  a  definite  period,  while  others  may  be  deposed  at 
any  time.     Most  commonly  the  election  is  made  in  the  depart- 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  347 

ment  by  the  men  of  the  Union,  though  there  are  cases  in  which 
appointment  to  the  office  is  made  by  Trade  Union  branches. 

(i)  In  regard  to  the  first-mentioned  duties  of  shop  stewards 
— the  collection  of  subscriptions  and  the  examination  of  creden- 
tials of  membership — two  facts  may  be  noted.  The  first  is  that 
such  methods  of  organization  are  not  confined  to  workers  whose 
daily  work  is  done  in  a  fixed  establishment,  but  are  also  used  on 
certain  forms  of  more  or  less  migratory  work,  such  as  building 
construction.  The  "ticket"  steward  commonly  examines  new 
men  taken  into  employment  on  a  building  job.  The  second  fact 
to  be  noted  is  that  in  certain  industries,  in  a  number  of  areas,  a 
regular  system  of  Works  Committees,  linked  together  in  district 
organizations,  had  developed  several  years  before  the  war  for 
the  purpose  of  the  more  efficient  achievement  of  these  objects. 

(2)  But  both  in  theory  and  in  practice  the  work  of  shop 
stewards — or  of  committees  of  shop  stewards — has  generally 
extended  beyond  these  functions.  As  an  example  of  practice, 
the  apparently  unsuitable  case  of  building  work  may  first  be 
taken.  Committees — somewhat  loosely  organized  it  may  be,  but 
nevertheless  committees,  and  so  considered  by  those  responsible 
for  their  formation — have  been  formed  in  the  building  trade; 
and  the  scope  of  these  committees  has  embraced  the  second  and 
wider  class  of  duties  mentioned  above.  It  has  for  years  been 
common  in  certain  districts  for  the  "ticket"  stewards  on  a  big 
building  job  to  come  together,  and  to  elect  a  secretary,  who  in 
some  cases  (it  may  be  noted)  has  been  a  representative  of  the 
labourers.  Such  a  committee  of  stewards  may  make  representa- 
tions to,  or  be  consulted  by,  the  employer  on  questions  such  as 
the  proper  allocation  of  work  in  order  that  sufficient  inside  op- 
erations may  be  reserved  for  wet  weather.  Another  question 
which  such  committees  have  been  known  to  bring  forward  is  that 
of  extra  payment  in  consequence  of  the  inconvenient  situation 
of  some  particular  job.  (This,  perhaps,  is  strictly  Trade  Union 
business.)  In  demanding  adequate  provision  for  the  heating  of 
tea  cans  and  for  the  enjoyment  of  meals  such  committees  may  be 
said  to  have  anticipated  in  their  own  way  the  modern  Welfare 
Committee.  In  many  industries  the  same  combination  of  shop 
stewards  and  the  same  practice  of  making  united  representations 
to  the  employer — a  practice  not  necessarily  "recognized"^have 
been  attempted  at  different  times  and  with  varying  degrees  of 
success.     In  some  cases  in  which  such  methods  have  been  sue- 


348  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

cessfully  applied  in  engineering  and  shipbuilding  the  initiative 
has  come  from  the  side  of  the  management.  It  remains  true,  of 
course,  that  the  shop  steward  system  up  to  the  present  has  been 
in  the  main  only  a  trade  system,  and  that  the  committees  formed 
under  it  can  be  classed  under  Works  Committees  only  if  the 
term  is  given  the  wide  scope  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this 
report.  If  the  term  is  used  in  this  wider  sense,  committees  will 
be  found  to  have  existed  for  many  years  in  a  number  of  indus- 
tries where  piecework  is  in  operation.  Some  of  these  are  dealt 
with  in  a  later  paragraph. 

Another  of  the  functions  of  shop  stewards — the  calling  of 
shop  meetings — appears  to  form  the  basis  of  a  system  of  Works 
Committees  in  certain  industries,  which  include,  at  any  rate  in 
some  districts,  the  furnishing  trades.  The  shop  meeting,  for 
which  the  rules  of  most  Trade  Unions  make  provision,  is  a 
meeting  of  the  members  of  a  Union;  but  the  term  has  another 
meaning  which  has  gained  currency  during  the  war — viz.,  a 
meeting  of  all  the  trades  in  a  works — and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that,  in  part,  at  least,  of  the  furnishing  industry,  this  has 
long  been  the  recognized  meaning.  Here  the  meetings  are  regu- 
lar (monthly),  and  the  stewards,  not  necessarily  drawn  from  all 
the  trades,  make  their  report  about  membership  and  the  like. 
The  shop  stewards  in  a  furnishing  works  may  in  this  way  form  a 
Works  Committee  with  a  secretary.  At  the  same  time  it  would 
appear  that  for  the  settlement  of  piece  prices  certain  Unions  in 
the  furnishing  trades,  such  as  that  of  the  upholsterers,  work 
through  their  own  stewards. 

Committees  for  the  arrangement  of  piece  prices,  which  are 
found  in  a  great  variety  of  industries,  are  convenient  examples  of 
(a)  trade  or  departmental  organization  as  contrasted  with 
works  organization;  and  (b)  the  informal  nature  and  composi- 
tion of  many  committees.  In  regard  to  (a),  the  method  of  the 
upholsterers  has  already  been  mentioned.  Usually  there  are 
only  a  small  number  of  upholsterers  in  any  one  estabhshment; 
fifteen  would  mean  a  very  considerable  firm.  In  smaller  es- 
tablishments tlie  shop  steward  or  stewards  of  the  Union  usually 
carry  through  the  negotiations  for  any  new  work  not  covered  by 
the  shop  "log,"  or  list  of  piece  prices.  If  they  are  unsuccessful, 
the  full-time  Trade  Union  ofificial  comes  into  the  bargaining 
operations.  In  one  establishment,  however,  in  which  an  excep- 
tionally large  number  of  upholsterers  are  employed  in  several 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  349 

departments  or  "floors,"  the  Departmental  or  Trade  Committee 
has  been  in  existence  for  many  years.  This  is  composed  of  all 
the  stewards — three  elected  from  each  of  the  "floors" — and  from 
this  committee  again  three  head  stewards  are  chosen.  For  the 
particular  work  of  any  floor  the  appropriate  stewards  undertake 
the  preliminary  negotiations ;  but  if  these  are  unsuccessful,  the 
question  in  dispute  will  come  before  the  committee,  and  be  dealt 
with  by  the  head  stewards  in  consultation  with  the  manage- 
ment before  it  is — probably  with  the  assent  of  a  shop  meeting — 
given  into  the  hands  of  the  Trade  Union  official.  The  pottery 
industry  supplies  examples  of  both  (a)  and  (b).  Pricing  Com- 
mittees are  found  in  most  sections  of  the  trade;  and  there  may 
be  several  committees  in  a  single  factory.  In  the  sanitary  trade 
a  standing  committee  is  usual.  In  many  factories,  however,  the 
method  employed  is  for  the  operative  concerned  to  call  in  two  or 
three  mates  to  assist  him  in  arranging  the  price  of  a  new  job. 
The  men  called  in  need  not  be  the  same  on  each  occasion.  The 
existence  of  several  committees  in  one  factory  may  be  exempli- 
fied by  an  establishment  in  the  Jet  and  Rockingham  branch  of 
the  industry,  in  which  there  have  been  for  many  years  Pricing 
Committees  for  jiggerers  (makers),  turners  and  handlers.  In 
this  case  none  but  Trade  Unionists  can  sit  on  the  committee; 
but  this  is  by  no  means  a  universal  rule.  In  works,  however,  in 
which  there  are  Trade  Unionists  the  practice  is  to  elect  to  the 
committee  one  (or  more)  of  them,  who  is  expected  to  serve  as 
a  connecting  link  between  the  committee  and  the  District  Com- 
mittee of  the  Trade  Union. 

The  position  of  the  "chapel"  in  relation  to  the  London  com- 
positors' scale  is  an  old  and  well-established  case  of  a  works 
organization  taking  part  among  other  functions  in  the  regulation 
of  piecework. 

In  other  trades  in  which  piecework  is  in  operation,  and 
where  complete  standardization  of  lists  has  been  found  imprac- 
ticable, methods  more  or  less  similar  to  those  mentioned  above 
are  found.  In  this  connection  the  development  of  Works  Com- 
mittees in  engineering  establishments  during  the  war  is  sig- 
nificant. The  engineering  trades  have  always  resisted  piecework; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  they  have  generally  bargained  on  an  in- 
dividual basis  for  any  work  done  on  this  system.  The  extension 
of  piecework  and  the  growth  of  the  method  of  collective  bar- 
gaining in  the  shop — by  Works  Committees  or  stewards — have 


350  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

gone  on  side  by  side;  and  it  would  appear  that,  to  a  considerable 
degree,  the  one  is  the  immediate  cause  of  the  other.  Even  in  in- 
dustries in  which  price  lists  for  piecework  are  used  there  are 
commonly  occasions  on  which  a  particular  job  is  not  covered  by 
the  list,  and  in  certain  cases  jobs  cannot  be  listed  at  all.  In  this 
connection  it  may  be  noted  that  in  mining  the  method  of  joint 
pit  committees — as  well  as  the  Joint  District  Board — has  been 
in  operation  in  certain  districts  for  a  long  time,  and  the  method 
is  embodied  in  the  rules  of  various  districts  under  the  Coal 
Mines  (Minimum  Wage)  Act  of  1912.  In  several  districts  dis- 
putes as  to  whether  a  workman  has  forfeited  his  right  to  the 
minimum  must  be  discussed  by  two  officials  of  the  mine  and  two 
representatives  of  the  local  lodge  of  the  Union  before  they  are 
taken  to  the  district  Joint  Board  committee,  and  in  one  district 
the  representatives  from  each  side  are  four  in  number. 

The  fact  that  in  many  mining  districts  the  Trade  Union 
branch — or  lodge — is  composed  only  of  the  men  working  in  one 
pit  makes  the  Lodge  Committee  in  effect  a  Pit  Committee.  It  is 
not  a  complete  Works  Committee — in  the  stricter  sense  of  the 
term — except  in  those  places  in  which  the  engincmen  and  certain 
other  workers,  who  commonly  belong  to  other  Unions,  are  mem- 
bers of  the  local  Miners'  association.  The  tendency  of  certain 
other  Unions —  e.g.,  those  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry — to  or- 
ganize on  the  basis  of  the  works  is  interesting  from  the  same 
standpoint. 

It  may  be  noted  that  in  many  cases  Conciliation  Boards  are 
really  Works  Committees.  This  is  so  when  the  joint  board  is 
composed  of  representatives  of  the  workpeople  in  one  establish- 
ment and  of  members  of  the  firm.  Such  boards — with  varying 
degrees  of  connection  between  the  workmen's  side  and  the  Trade 
Unions — have  been  formed  in  individual  establishments  belong- 
ing to  a  variety  of  industries. 

Nomenclature 

A  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  "Works  Committees" 
and  "Shop  Committees."  The  former  cover  the  whole  of  a 
works  (or  even,  in  some  cases,  the  whole  of  two  or  three  con- 
tiguous works)  ;  the  latter  cover  a  particular  department  or  shop 
in  a  works.  Among  Works  Committees  it  is  possible  to  dis- 
tinguish three  varieties.  The  first  and  main  variety  may  be 
called  the  "Industrial  Committee."     Such  a  committee,  generally 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  351 

constituted  on  a  Trade  Union  basis,  deals  with  particular  ques- 
tions affecting  the  conditions  and  remuneration  of  labour  in  a 
given  works — questions  of  principle  being  reserved  for  the  dis- 
trict or  national  organizations  concerned.  It  is  this  variety 
which,  being  the  most  important,  is  often  called  by  the  general 
name  of  Works  Committee.  A  second  variety  may  be  called  the 
"Welfare  Committee."  Such  a  committee,  representing  as  a  rule 
all  the  workers  in  a  given  works,  deals  with  what  may  be  termed 
works  amenities — ventilation,  sanitation,  and  the  like.  A  third 
variety,  which  may  be  merged  with  the  second,  or  may  be  dis- 
tinct, is  the  "Social  Union,"  or,  more  exactly,  the  committee 
governing  the  Social  Union,  where  one  exists,  of  the  workers 
employed  in  the  same  establishment.  Such  a  committee  is  con- 
cerned with  games,  recreations,  study-circles,  picnics  and  the  like. 

Apart  from  these  main  types  there  are,  of  course,  local  varie- 
ties of  all  sorts.  There  may  be,  for  instance,  a  separate  "Mess- 
room  Committee" ;  or,  again,  there  may  be  a  separate  "Women's 
Committee."  There  may  be  a  committee  peculiar  to  a  small 
section  of  workers  {e.g.,  tool-makers),  which  handles  a  large 
and  important  area  of  functions  in  regard  to  those  workers. 
Finally,  even  though  there  is  no  regular  or  standing  Works  Com- 
mittees, it  may  be  the  case  that  committees  are  created  ad  hoc 
whenever  an  important  question  arises  in  a  works,  and  that  these 
committees  are  consulted  by  the  management  with  a  view  to 
settling  such  questions.  This  indeed  is  the  procedure  followed 
in  some  of  the  works  where  the  relations  of  management  and 
men  are  most  amicable.  In  some  cases  the  committee  so  formed 
consists  of  the  shop  stewards  of  the  separate  trades. 

It  may  be  added  that  some  committees  are  "joint,"  and  em- 
brace representatives  of  both  men  and  management,  meeting  to- 
gether in  regular  session;  while  others  (and  this  is  the  general 
rule)  are  committees  of  workmen  only,  but  meet  the  manage- 
ment from  time  to  time  (sometimes  regularly,  and  sometimes 
occasionally;  sometimes  directly,  and  sometimes  through  their 
chairman  or  secretary)  to  settle  grievances  and  to  give  or  re- 
ceive information. 

Various  names  have  been  applied  to  committees  formed 
during  the  war,  particularly  to  those  formed  to  deal  with  such 
questions  as  timekeeping.  Among  the  names  are  "Workers'  Ad- 
visory Board,"  "Works'  Tribunal,"  "Vigilant  Committee,"  and 
"Works'  Council."  1 

1  "Works   Committee,"   it   may   be   noted,   is   sometimes  taken   to   mean 


352  SELECTED   ARTICLES 


Origins  and  Influence  of  War  Developments 

The    causes    whicli    have    brought    Works    Committees     into 
existence  during  the  war,  and  the  circumstances  attending  their 
origin,  are  naturally  very  different.     A  classification  of  origins 
vnay,  however,  be  attempted  under  the  following  heads : — 
(i)     Shops  stewards. 

(2)  Dilution. 

(3)  Methods  of  remuneration. 
(a)     Timekeeping. 

(5)  Welfare. 

(6)  War  charity. 

(7)  Other  causes. 

Shop  Stewards 

To  a  very  considerable  extent  the  first  three  headings  must 
be  treated  together.  This  is  particularly  true  of  engineering 
works.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  shop  stewards  with 
a  considerable  range  of  duties  were  a  normal  feature  of  Trade 
Union  organization  before  the  war.  It  has  also  been  seen  that, 
though  for  the  most  part  these  stewards  acted  only  for  their  own 
separate  organizations,  this  was  not  their  only  method  of  opera- 
tion. One  effect  of  the  war  has  been  to  enhance  the  position  and 
prestige  of  the  shop  stewards.  The  loss  of  the  right  to  strike 
has  depressed  the  position  of  Trade  Union  officials,  who  were 
thus  deprived  of  the  chief  weapon  they  controlled  and,  if  they 
had  organized  strikes,  would  have  been  liable  to  prosecution. 
Under  these  conditions  the  shop  stewards,  more  unknown  and 
therefore  less  exposed,  began  to  exercise  more  power.  Nor 
was  this  all.  In  an  industry  such  as  engineering,  questions  of 
dilution  and,  again,  of  payment  by  results  raised  matters  of  detail 
which  needed  some  shop  machinery  for  their  solution.  Such 
questions  often  concerned  the  members  of  several  Unions  in  the 
same  establishment;  and  the  common  interest  of  men  working 
side  by  side  often  led  to  concerted  action.  Though  many  Works 
Committees  instituted   during  the  war  can  be  traced  to  one  or 

only  a  Joint  Committee  of  management  and  employees.  The  name  is  not 
used  in  this  narrow  sense  in  this  report.  "Shop  Committee"  is  sometimes 
used  in  the  sense  in  which  "Works  Committee"  is  defined  above,  i.e.  for 
a  committee  covering  not  merely  a  department  but  the  whole  of  a  works. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  353 

other  of  these  sources,  and  though  most  of  the  committees  thus 
called  into  existence  may  be  said  to  have  worked  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  all  grades  of  workpeople,  it  is  true  that  in  certain  cases 
the  question  of  dilution  has  produced  committees  of  shop  stew- 
ards with  conflicting  interests.  In  certain  places  two  commit- 
tees have  been  formed,  one  composed  of  the  shop  stewards  of 
the  skilled  trades,  and  the  other  confined  to  the  stewards  of  the 
Unions  representing  the  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  men. 

It  may  be  added  that  this  tendency  among  workpeople  to 
bring  their  organization  more  closely  to  bear  upon  workshop 
conditions  is  to  be  seen  in  industries  which  have  been  much  less 
affected  by  the  war  than  engineering.  The  tendency  preceded, 
but  has  been  strengthened  by  the  war. 

Dilution 

To  gain  the  consent  of  the  National  Unions  was  not  in  itself 
enough  to  settle  the  question  of  dilution ;  for  it  is  obvious  that 
in  a  complicated  trade  such  as  engineering,  with  its  many  varie- 
ties, questions  of  detail  might  arise  in  almost  every  works  which 
needed  some  machinery  for  their  solution.  This  has  led  to  the 
introduction  of  Dilution  Committees  in  many  establishments. 
These  committees,  consisting  of  representatives  of  the  workers 
(mainly,  of  course,  the  skilled  workers),  discuss  with  the 
management  on  what  machines  or  processes,  to  what  extent,  and 
under  what  conditions  dilution  shall  be  introduced.  Commit- 
tees of  this  character,  dealing  with  an  important  range  of  eco- 
nomic questions,  have  often  been  led  to  raise  other  questions 
than  that  of  dilution,  and  to  bring  forward  for  discussion  with 
the  management,  with  which  they  were  being  brought  into  con- 
stant contact  by  the  problems  of  dilution,  questions  and  griev- 
ances of  a  general  character.  Sometimes  the  committee  has  re- 
mained in  name  a  Dilution  Committee,  while  it  was  in  reality  a 
Works  Committee.  Sometimes  a  definite  change  has  been  made, 
and  the  Dilution  Committee,  with  more  or  less  change  in  its 
composition,  has  been  turned  into  a  Works  Committee.  In  any 
case,  the  problem  of  dilution  has  been  one  of  the  most  potent 
forces  in  forwarding  the  movement  towards  Works  Committees. 
Though  there  has  been  a  marked  tendency  for  Dilution  Com- 
mittees to  develop  into  Works  Committees,  it  may  be  noted  that 
in  one  or  two  cases  the  Dilution  Committee  was  formed  after, 
and  as  a  subcommittee  of,  the  Works  Committee. 


354  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

The  importance  of  the  connection  between  a  Works  Commit- 
tee and  the  Trade  Unions  is  indicated  by  complaints  that  Dilu- 
tion Committees'  negotiations  have  violated  Trade  Union  agree- 
ments. 

Methods  of  Remuneration 

One  of  the  necessities  of  the  war  has  been  to  increase  output; 
and  one  method  which  suggested  itself  for  this  purpose  was  that 
of  payment  by  results  in  trades  where  timework  was  the  normal 
practice.  In  many  trades  any  system  of  piecework  is  very  un- 
popular, and,  in  the  past,  has  been  strongly  opposed.  This  is 
true  of  engineering,  where  the  Unions  had  left  any  piecework 
which  was  introduced  to  the  control  of  individual  bargaining. 
The  rapid  extension  of  piecework  in  such  trades  has  led  to  a 
variety  of  forms  of  collective  bargaining.  In  some  establish- 
ments a  new  piece-price  is  submitted  to  the  Works  Committee 
before  it  is  discussed  with  the  individual  workman.  In  others 
an  Appeals  Committee  has  been  instituted  to  consider  and  bring 
forward  complaints  against  piece-prices  or  premium  bonus  times 
fixed  by  the  management.  In  others,  again,  something  on  the 
lines  previously  mentioned  as  existing  in  parts  of  the  pottery 
industry  has  been  developed ;  and  prices  have  been  discussed, 
not  with  the  individual  workman,  but  with  the  workman  and 
two  or  three  of  his  mates  on  similar  work.  In  other  establish- 
ments various  forms  of  collective  or  group  bonus  on  output  (or 
output  value)  have  been  adopted;  and  in  some  of  these  cases 
committees  have  been  formed  either  temporarily,  in  order  to 
discuss  the  introduction  of  the  new  method,  or  permanently,  in 
order  to  supervise  its  working.  In  other  cases  committees  have 
been  formed  to  deal  with  timekeeping  bonuses  or  profit-sharing 
schemes. 

Committees  connected  with  methods  of  remuneration  are  not, 
in  themselves.  Works  Committees  proper.  They  may  be  com- 
mittees representing  only  a  small  section  of  the  establishment 
{e.g.,  the  toolmakcrs),  while  the  rest  of  the  workmen  in  the 
establishment  are  not  concerned  and  are  represented  by  no  com- 
mittee. They  may,  again,  be  partial  in  scope  as  well  as  in  mem- 
bership, and  deal  with  no  other  matters  than  that  of  a  bonus. 
This,  however,  is  unlikely  and  seems  unusual.  A  committee 
connected  with  a  bonus  system  often  comes  to  embrace  a  wider 
scope,  and  will  bring  forward,  or  be  consulted  by  the  manage- 
ment about,  other  matters. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  355 


Timekeeping 

Committees  whose  sole  function,  or  one  of  whose  main  func- 
tions, is  the  improvement  of  timekeeping,  have  been  instituted 
in  the  coal  mining  industry,  at  the  ironworks  in  Cleveland  and 
Durham,  and  in  a  number  of  engineering  and  munitions  fac- 
tories. The  Pit-head,  or  Output,  or  Absentee,  Committees,  as  they 
are  variously  called,  commonly  deal  with  the  negligence  of  mine 
officials  as  well  as  with  cases  of  absenteeism.  The  committees 
at  the  Cleveland  and  Durham  blast  furnaces  are  confined  to  the 
one  function  of  improvement  of  timekeeping. 


Welfare 

The  strain  of  the  war  has  introduced  conditions  which  have 
made  it  necessary  to  consider  ways  of  promoting  the  physical 
welfare  of  the  workers.  Long  hours,  have  been  worked;  night 
shifts  have  been  added  to  day  shifts ;  workshops  have  sometimes 
been  crowded ;  the  introduction  of  women  workers  by  the  side 
of  men,  in  occupations  where  women  had  not  previously  been 
employed,  has  raised  a  number  of  questions.  Matters  such  as  the 
best  distribution  of  working  hours,  the  provision  of  canteens 
and  mess-rooms,  and  the  improvement  of  ventilation  and  sanita- 
tion, have  all  demanded  attention.  On  such  matters,  where  the 
interest  of  the  workers  is  paramount,  the  simplest  course  is  ob- 
viously to  consult  them,  and  to  receive  their  complaints  and 
suggestions  through  their  own  accredited  representatives.  This 
course  has  been  adopted  in  a  number  of  establishments ;  and  the 
result  has  been  the  institution  of  a  Welfare  Committee,  which 
has  eased  the  situation  by  removing,  or  preventing  the  rise  of,  a 
number  of  grievances.  The  workmen  have  thus  been  allowed  a 
voice  in  regard  to  the  conditions  under  which  they  labour,  and 
these  Welfare  Committees,  though  they  can  hardly  be  called 
Works  Committees,  may  be  said  to  prepare  the  ground.  They 
serve  to  engender  something  of  a  spirit  of  community  in  the 
works,  and  to  help  the  workmen  to  feel  that  they  have  a  common 
interest  as  workers  in  the  same  establishment. 


3S6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


War  Charity 

In  several  cases  (for  instance  in  the  Glasgow  district)  com- 
mittees have  been  formed  to  administer  funds  raised  in  the 
works  for  the  purpose  of  helping  dependents  of  workmen  who 
have  joined  the  Colours.  These  committees  form  a  germ  which 
may  develop,  and  here  and  there  has  developed,  into  Works 
Committees  capable  of  entertaining  grievances  or  raising  general 
questions  and  bringing  them  to  the  notice  of  the  management. 
Where  the  firm  has  subscribed  to  the  works'  fund,  and  has  been 
represented  on  the  Committee  of  Management,  the  nucleus  of  a 
Joint  Committee  is  obviously  present. 


Other  Causes 

In  much  the  same  way  committees  formed  in  an  establish- 
ment for  social  purposes  prepare  the  ground,  if  they  do  nothing 
more,  for  the  institution  of  Works  Committees.  They  help  to 
create  the  habit  of  common  action  through  representatives;  and 
accustoming  the  men  of  different  crafts  and  different  Unions  to 
act  together  for  purposes  of  a  social  nature,  they  gradually  lead 
to  the  adoption  of  the  idea  that  a  certain  range  of  industrial 
questions  may  be  treated  in  the  same  way.  In  some  of  the  best 
establishments  which  have  recently  instituted  Works  Commit- 
tees the  success  of  these  committees  is  largely  attributed  to  the 
work  which  committees  of  a  social  character  have  done  in  pre- 
paring the  ground. 

It  is  believed  that  the  ways  indicated  are  those  in  which 
Works  Committees  have  mainly  tended  to  arise.  In  a  subject 
of  such  variety,  however,  it  is  impossible  to  make  any  exhaustive 
enumeration.  Often  the  institution  of  a  Works  Committee  is  due 
to  the  initiative  of  an  employer  or  manager  who  desires  to  give 
the  work-people  a  larger  control  over  working  conditions  or  who 
finds  that  his  task  is  greatly  eased  if  he  can  deal  with  an  ac- 
credited representative  of  the  workmen.  Sometimes  a  commit- 
tee may  have  arisen  in  connection  with  a  particular  dispute  and 
for  negotiating  a  settlement,  and  may  then,  in  the  issue,  be 
adopted  as  a  permanent  mode  of  working.  In  certain  cases 
during  the  war,  as  before  it,  the  creation  of  a  Works  Com- 
mittee has  been  one  of  the  terms  of  settlement  of  a  dispute. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        357 


Constitution 

The  constitution  of  a  Works  Committee  naturally  varies  with 
its  functions.  A  Welfare  Committee,  handling  questions  in 
which  the  diflference  between  unionist  and  non-unionist  workmen, 
or  again  the  difference  between  different  Unions  of  workmen, 
hardly  arises,  will  tend  to  be  composed  of  representatives  of  all 
workers,  elected  without  regard  to  differences  of  craft  or  grade 
or  occupation.  An  Industrial  Committee,  handling  as  it  does 
questions  in  which  differences  of  skill  or  of  craft  are  concerned, 
will  involve  a  new  range  of  considerations.  It  may  be  necessary 
to  consider  the  relation  of  such  a  committee,  if  one  is  instituted, 
to  the  existing  industrial  organization  of  the  workmen  in  the 
works  in  the  shape  of  shop  stewards  or  delegates ;  and,  again, 
it  may  be  necessary  to  consider  whether  management  and  labour 
should  sit  together  as  a  Joint  Committee  (and,  if  so,  in  what 
proportions),  or  whether  the  Works  Committee  should  be  one 
of  workers  only,  with  opportunities  of  ready  access  to  the  man- 
agement— and  ultimately,  it  may  be,  to  the  directors — when  such 
access  is  desired. 

The  last  point  may  be  taken  first.  Joint  Committees  are  rare. 
There  are  some  committees  of  this  nature,  containing  two  or 
three  representatives  of  the  management  and  about  a  dozen  rep- 
resentatives of  the  workmen,  which  meet  at  regular  intervals — 
in  one  case  from  week  to  week,  but  more  often  at  longer  inter- 
vals. Even  when  the  Committee  is  a  Joint  Committee,  however, 
some  provision  has  generally  to  be  made  for  separate  meetings 
of  the  representatives  of  the  workers;  and,  as  a  rule.  Works 
Committees  appear  to  be  committees  of  the  workers  only,  with 
regular  facilities  for  consultation  with  the  management,  either  at 
fixed  intervals  or  whenever  occasion  arises.  Joint  Committees 
may  ultimately  come  to  be  the  normal  form,  but  in  the  prelim- 
inary stage  of  development  it  seems  likely  that  committees  of 
workers  only,  with  regular  facilities  for  access  to  the  manage- 
ment, will  generally  be  the  form  adopted. 

Where  the  committee  is  a  Joint  Committee,  the  idea  of  the 
joint  meeting  is  probably  first  mooted  by  the  management;  and 
unless  the  workers'  side  is  already  in  existence  the  management 
may  suggest  the  basis  of  composition  and  the  methods  of  elec- 
tion  of  the   committee.     Where,   however,   the   committee  is    a 


3S8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

committee  of  workmen  only,  it  is  advisable  (whether  the  idea  of 
such  a  committee  is  suggested  by  the  management  or  develops 
spontaneously  among  the  workmen),  that  the  workmen  should 
be  left  to  determine  the  basis  of  its  composition  and  the  method 
of  its  election  for  themselves. 

Two  main  methods  appear  to  prevail  in  regard  to  the  com- 
position of  a  Works  Committee  of  the  second  type  mentioned 
above. 

(a)  The  committee  may  be  elected  by  all  the  workmen  em- 
ployed, each  department  or  shop  being  treated  as  a  constituency, 
and  returning  a  number  of  members,  perhaps  in  proportion  to  its 
size.  This  appears  to  be  the  simplest  method  and  is  found  even 
in  works  in  which  the  workers  have  already  an  industrial  organ- 
ization in  the  shape  of  shop  stewards  or  delegates.  This  is  the 
case  in  most  works,  and  in  such  cases  it  may  be  advisable  to 
build  on  the  existing  organization.  This  brings  us  to  the  second 
main  possibility. 

(b)  The  committee  may  be  a  committee  of  the  shop  stew- 
ards of  the  diflferent  Unions  represented  in  the  works,  or,  in  a 
large  works  where  shop  stewards  are  numerous,  a  committee 
elected  by  the  shop  stewards.  In  one  works,  for  instance,  which 
employs  about  3,000  workmen,  the  Works  Committee  (in  this 
case  a  Joint  Committee)  contains  12  representatives  of  the  work- 
men elected  by  the  shop  stewards  (some  40  in  number)  of  the 
various  Unions  represented  in  the  works.  In  another  works  a 
committee  of  seven  shop  stewards  meets  the  management 
monthly  and  discusses  questions  which  its  members  and  the 
management  have  asked  to  have  placed  on  the  agenda. 

The  two  methods  which  have  just  been  described  represent 
the  two  possibilities  at  either  end  of  the  scale ;  but  various  meth- 
ods may  be  employed  which  combine,  or  come  as  it  were  be- 
tween, these  two  possibilities.  Even  where  the  committee  is 
elected  by  all  the  workmen,  unionist  or  non-unionist,  voting  by 
departments,  the  tendency,  if  the  works  is  strongly  unionist,  is 
towards  the  election  of  representatives  who  are  all  unionists  and 
are  also,  either  altogether  or  in  part,  shop  stewards  of  their 
Unions.  In  one  works  with  4,000  workmen  the  Works  Com- 
mittee of  21  members,  elected  by  a  general  vote  of  the  men  work- 
ers, is  entirely  composed  of  .shop  stewards.  In  another  works, 
with  3,500  workmen,  in  which  a  Works  Committee  has  existed 
for  about  10  years,  all  the  workmen  in  any  department  may  vote, 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  359 

but  only  unionist  workmen  can  be  elected,  and  half  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Works  Committee  are  shop  stewards. 

Another  method  which  deserves  special  notice  is  that  of  elec- 
tion on  the  basis  of  Unions,  all  the  members  of  a  Union  in  the 
works  electing  a  certain  number  of  representatives.  The  num- 
ber of  members  to  which  a  Union  is  entitled  may  vary  in  direct 
proportion  (or  in  some  other  way)  with  its  membership  in  the 
works.  Thus,  in  a  scheme  under  consideration  for  an  engineer- 
ing works,  representation  on  this  basis  gives  seven  members  to 
three  General  Labour  Unions,  eight  members  to  the  largest 
Union  of  skilled  men,  two  members  to  each  of  two  other  Unions 
of  skilled  men,  and  one  member  to  each  of  seven  other  skilled 
Unions.  This  method — since  in  an  engineering  establishment 
the  members  of  a  Union  may  be  distributed  through  several 
departments,  in  each  of  which  there  may  be  a  shop  steward  or 
stewards  of  the  Union — is  not  necessarily  identical  with  that  in 
which  the  shop  stewards  of  the  diiferent  Unions  in  each  depart- 
ment form  the  committee.  In  several  iron  and  steel  works  the 
method  of  election  appears  to  be  by  the  members  of  each  branch 
of  a  Union  who  are  working  in  the  establishment. 

In  one  such  case  the  right  to  representation  is  stated  to  be- 
long to  the  branch  because  it  has  members  in  the  works.  The 
statement,  however,  is  qualified  in  order  to  cover  the  case  of  a 
Trade  Union  branch — e.g.,  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  En- 
gineers or  the  Bricklayers'  Union — only  some  of  whose  members 
may  be  employed  in  the  particular  works.  In  their  case  only 
the  members  of  the  branch  employed  in  the  works  make  the  ap- 
pointment ;  and  from  the  nature  of  the  case  the  representative  so 
appointed  is  almost  bound  to  be  the  person  acting  as  shop  stew- 
ard for  the  Union  in  the  works.  This,  combined  with  the  fact 
that  the  branches  of  the  iron  and  steel  Trade  Unions  correspond 
to  sections  or  departments  of  workers  in  a  single  works,  makes 
sU"ch  branch  representation  similar  to  departmental  representa- 
tion. Another  feature  of  this  system  is  that  the  secretary  of  any 
branch  who  is  working  in  the  establishment — this  is  almost 
bound  to  be  the  case  with  branches  the  membership  of  which  is 
confined  to  the  works — is,  ex  officio,  a  member  of  the  commit- 
tee. The  draft  proposals  for  representation  now  being  discussed 
by  the  shipbuilding  trades  in  one  district  are  to  the  effect  that 
each  Works  Committee  should  be  composed  of  a  certain  number 
of  representatives   from   the  men   of   each   trade  or  Union  em- 


36o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ployed  in  the  yard,  and  that  among  the  representatives  of  each 
trade  or  Union  one  at  least  should  be  an  official  shop  steward. 
Some  of  the  Unions  in  the  shipbuilding  industry  include,  it  may 
be  noted,  several  trades,  and  the  official  yard  delegates  (or  shop 
stewards)  of  the  several  trades  in  one  Union  often  form  a  Yard 
Committee  for  such  functions  as  the  inspection  of  Union  cards. 

Other  methods  found  in  practice  are  election  of  all  the  mem- 
bers by  the  whole  of  the  employees  in  an  establishment  voting 
as  one  constituency,  and  election  by  occupation  or  trades. 

In  some  works  there  is  one  committee  for  skilled  men  and 
another  for  unskilled  or  semi-skilled.  In  several  large  engineer- 
ing establishments,  for  instance,  there  are  two  Committees  of 
Shop  Stewards,  one  for  craftsmen,  and  another  for  semi-skilled 
men  and  labourers.  Generally,  however,  there  is  only  one  com- 
mittee for  both  sets  of  workmen.  The  persons  elected  to  such  a 
committee  are  in  certain  cases  drawn  solely  from  the  ranks  of 
the  skilled  craftsmen,  though  there  may  be  unskilled  men  (and 
stewards  of  unskilled  Unions)  in  the  works.  The  exclusion  of 
any  direct  representation  of  the  unskilled  men  in  such  circum- 
stances is  generally  due  to  the  same  cause  as  the  absence  of  any 
direct  representation  of  the  smaller  craft  Unions,  viz.,  the  fact 
that  a  department's  representative  tends  to  belong  to  the  Union 
which  has  most  members  in  the  department.  There  are  certainly 
cases  in  which  this  apparent  exclusion  of  representation  of  the 
interests  of  the  unskilled  is  a  source  of  friction  between  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  workers ;  and  the  presence  in  some  works  of 
separate  committees  is  the  extreme  expression  of  such  differ- 
ence in  interest.  It  is  argued  that  the  unskilled  men — though 
they  may  be  excluded  by  exactly  similar  circumstances — are  in  a 
different  position  from  a  minority  of  skilled  men  who  may  be 
excluded  from  direct  representation,  in  that  the  interests  of  the 
latter,  being  akin  to  their  own,  are  better  understood  by,  and 
receive  more  sympathetic  consideration  from,  the  skilled  men  on 
the  committee.  It  would  nevertheless  appear  that  most  commit- 
tees appointed  on  a  departmental  basis  do  succeed  in  representing 
fairly  the  interests  of  all  their  constituents;  and  it  is  claimed  that 
the  committee  member  tends  to  look  upon  himself  not  as  the 
representative  of  a  particular  craft  or  section  in  the  department, 
but  as  the  representative  of  the  department  as  a  whole. 

The  position  of  women  workers  is  in  some  respects  analogous 
to  that  of  unskilled  workmen.     In  some  cases  they  have  a  vote 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        361 

for  the  Works  Committee  elected  by  the  various  departments, 
and  they  may  have  a  representative  of  their  own  on  that  com- 
mittee ;  in  other  cases  representation  is  secured  to  women's  de- 
partments as  such.  Sometimes,  even  where  women  are  excluded 
from  voting,  the  Works  Committee  may  represent  their  inter- 
ests; and  it  may  entertain  and  bring  before  the  notice  of  the 
management  grievances  of  women  workers  and  questions  affect- 
ing their  interests  and  the  conditions  of  their  labour.  Occasion- 
ally, though  this  is  rare,  there  is  a  separate  committee  to  repre- 
sent the  interests  of  women  workers. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  is  obvious  that  the  constitution 
of  a  Works  Committee  raises  a  number  of  questions,  (i)  In 
the  first  place,  there  is  the  question  whether  the  committee  should 
be  based  on  the  industrial  organization  of  shop  stewards,  where 
such  organization  is  in  existence,  or  should  be  based  on  a  general 
vote.  (2)  In  the  next  place,  assuming  the  latter  alternative  to 
be  adopted,  there  is  the  question  whether  all  the  workers  should 
vote,  and  if  so,  how  the  constituencies  should  be  arranged,  or 
whether  only  unionist  workers  should  vote,  and,  if  so,  how  and 
in  what  proportions  the  different  Unions  should  be  represented. 
(3)  Further,  there  is  the  question  whether  there  should  be  a 
single  committee,  or  one  committee  for  skilled  and  another  for 
unskilled  workers ;  and  (4)  finally,  there  is  the  question  whether 
women  workers  should  have  a  separate  committee  or  be  repre- 
sented through  the  general  committee  of  the  works. 

No  general  answer  can  be  given  to  any  or  all  of  these  ques- 
tions. The  circumstances  of  different  works  vary,  and  each  type 
has  to  find  its  own  solution. 

Wherever  it  is  possible,  a  committee  of  shop  stewards  or  Trade 
Union  representatives  would  appear  to  be  the  best  solution.  At 
the  same  time,  it  is  important  to  secure  that  the  size  of  the  com- 
mittee, while  large  enough  to  be  representative,  should  not  be  so 
large  as  to  make  it  unwieldy,  and  that,  as  far  as  possible,  there 
should  be  direct  representation  of  each  department.  The  size 
of  the  committees  actually  in  existence  varies ;  some  committees 
have  12  members,  some  have  upwards  of  30.  The  smaller  num- 
ber seems  more  likely  to  be  effective.  It  may  be  necessary, 
therefore,  that  a  Works  Committee,  if  it  contains  a  large  num- 
ber of  members,  should  appoint  a  smaller  committee  of  itself; 
and  that,  while  the  management  should  be  in  regular  contact 
with  the  smaller  committee,  questions  of  difficulty  should  be  re- 


362  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

ferred  by  the  smaller  committee  to  the  larger,  the  management 
meeting  the  larger  committee  in  case  of  need.  In  its  choice  of 
the  smaller  committee  the  Works  Committee  could  allocate  a 
place,  or  a  number  of  places,  to  each  department  or  group  of 
departments.  Another  method  of  electing  a  committee  of  man- 
ageable size  would  be  that  from  the  stewards  in  each  department 
(or,  in  certain  cases,  groups  of  departments)  one  should  be  ap- 
pointed by  a  general  election  held  in  the  department  or  by  the 
departmental  stewards  themselves.  In  certain  cases,  in  large 
works,  it  may  be  desirable  that  the  stewards  in  each  department 
should  form  Shop  Committees,  with  which  the  general  commit- 
tee could  keep  in  touch  and  from  which  its  members  could  learn 
the  needs  and  the  complaints  of  each  department.  Another 
variant  is  that  sub-committees  instead  of  being  departmental 
should  be  functional,  i.e.,  should  each  deal  with  a  particular 
matter  or  set  of  matters  such  as  dilution,  piecework,  suggestions 
of  improvements,  etc. 

The  existing  Works  Committees  have  generally  two  officers, 
a  chairman  and  a  secretary.  The  tenure  of  office  of  the  com- 
mittee is  often  unfixed.  Where  it  is  fixed,  it  may  be  for  six 
months  or  for  a  year.  A  fixed  tenure,  provided  that  it  is  not  too 
short,  seems  desirable ;  a  new  election  will  reinvigorate  the  com- 
mittee and  if  the  workmen  in  general  have  any  feeling  which 
the  committee  has  failed  to  express,  it  will  give  a  chance  for  its 
expression. 

The  desirability  of  election  by  secret  ballot  has  been  em- 
phasized by  many  employers  and  by  some  Trade  Unionists. 

Procedure 

Some  Works  Committees  have  regular  meetings  with  the 
management,  at  intervals  of  a  week,  a  fortnight  or  a  month.  A 
list  of  agenda  is  circulated  and  regular  minutes  are  kept.  In 
one  establishment  where  this  is  done  the  men's  chairman  presides 
at  one  fortnightly  meeting  and  a  representative  of  the  manage- 
ment at  the  next.  In  other  cases  the  meetings  are  not  regular, 
but  are  held  whenever  occasion  arises.  Arguments  may  be  used 
both  for  and  against  a  system  of  regular  meetings.  It  may  be 
urged  in  their  favour  that  they  provide  a  known  and  regular 
time  for  raising  a  question;  that  they  enable  questions  to  be 
raised  in  their  initial  stages,  whereas,  if  meetings  are  not  held 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        363 

until  occasion  arises,  a  question  may  have  grown  acute  before 
a  meeting  is  held ;  and,  finally,  that  by  bringing  representatives  of 
the  management  and  the  men  into  constant  contact,  they  accus- 
tom either  side  to  seeing  and  understanding  the  point  of  view 
of  the  other.  It  may  be  urged,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  meet- 
ings are  regular,  and  at  frequent  intervals,  there  may  often  be 
no  business  to  be  done,  and  that  the  effect  may  be  either  to  make 
the  committee  slack,  or  to  induce  the  more  restless  members  to 
manufacture  business  by  finding  grievances  and  discovering  dif- 
ficulties. In  any  case  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  main  thing 
is  not  so  much  regularity  of  meetings,  as  what  may  be  called 
the  principle  of  the  open  door.  If  the  men  know  that  their  rep- 
resentatives have  access  to  the  management,  and  if  they  know 
that  the  management,  on  its  side,  is  ready  to  consult  their  repre- 
sentatives, the  success  of  the  main  function  of  the  committee  is 
secured.  The  number  of  times  at  which  a  general  Works  Com- 
mittee needs  to  meet  the  management  will  vary  with  the  type  of 
works  and  with  the  degree  to  which  sectional  questions  can  be 
handled  by  such  a  committee.  One  committee,  in  an  establish- 
ment in  which  relations  have  always  been  good,  has  met  the 
management  on  an  average  three  times  a  year  in  the  last  twenty- 
four  years,  though  in  the  last  three  years,  owing  to  the  number 
of  questions  raised  by  the  war,  the  average  number  of  meetings 
in  each  year  has  been  seven.  During  the  whole  existence  of  the 
committee,  however,  the  right  of  the  separate  trade  delegates  to 
meet  the  management  has  been  freely  used.  Employers  complain 
that  workpeople  tend  to  want  all  questions  settled  offhand,  and 
fail  to  realize  that  investigation  may  be  necessary ;  and  one  argu- 
ment in  favour  of  regular  meetings  is  that  they  form  a  permanent 
and  businesslike  substitute  for  frequent  sectional  deputations. 
There  would  appear  to  be  many  questions  which  can  be  settled 
in  a  more  satisfactory  way  if  they  are  discussed  and  investigated 
at  regular  joint  meetings.  This  method,  however,  cannot  be 
applied  indiscriminately ;  there  will  always  be  matters  of  urgency 
which  must  be  taken  up  as  they  arise ;  and  sectional  questions 
may,  in  certain  cases,  be  better  treated  apart  from  the  regular 
meetings  of  a  general  Works  Committee. 

One  other  caution  may  be  suggested  in  this  connection. 
Works  Committees  instituted  in  engineering  establishments  dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  war  have  naturally  found  abundant  work. 
The  same  will  probably  be  true  of  the  period  of  reconstruction 


364  SELFXTED   ARTICLES 

after  the  end  of  the  war.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  under 
normal  conditions  a  system  of  weekly  or  fortnightly  meetings 
might  prove  unnecessary.  It  may  be  suggested,  therefore,  that 
a  distinction  may  be  drawn,  on  the  point  of  frequency  of  meet- 
ings, between  what  may  be  called  "the  emergency  period"  and 
the  period  of  normal  conditions. 

Another  question  of  procedure,  which  also  bears  on  the  mat- 
ter of  frequency  of  meetings,  is  connected  with  the  position  of 
the  secretary  of  a  Works  Committee.     In  many  establishments 
which  have  Works  Committees  a  large  part  of  the  active  work 
which  they  entail  is  done  by  the  secretary.     Difficulties  are  re- 
ported  to   him   by   the   workmen    concerned    either    directly   or 
through  a  member  of  the  committee,  and  he,  after  consultation 
with  the  committee    (or,  it  may  be,  in  lesser  matters,  immedi- 
ately),   brings   the    difficulties     before     the   management.      Such 
difficulties   may  often   be    settled   at   once,    and   their   settlement 
simply  reported  to  the  Works  Committee.    A  great  deal  of  work 
may  thus  be  thrown  upon  the  secretary  in  consulting  the  work- 
men  concerned   and   in   interviewing  the  management,    and   the 
position  is  thus  one  which  offers  a  great  deal  of  scope  to  a  man 
of  capacity.     Such  a  man  may  largely  carry  on  his  shoulders  the 
current  work,  and  the  committee  may   only  need   to  deal  with 
larger  questions.     But  the  position  has  its  difficulties,  and  there 
are  two  matters  which  deserve  particular  notice.     One  of  these 
is  the  question  of  the  secretary  or  chairman's  moving  about  the 
works   during   working  hours,   and    entering   departments   other 
than  his  own,  for  the  purpose  of  interviewing  any  workman  who 
has  preferred  a  complaint.     If  the  secretary  is  bound  to  ask  the 
consent  of  a  foreman  or  overlooker  before  he  enters  a  depart- 
ment, and  if  that  consent  may  be  refused,  the  work  which  the 
secretary   can   do    in    investigating   and    removing   grievances    is 
liable  to  be  hindered.     If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  can  enter  any 
department   (without  any  formality,  or  on  simple  notification  of 
his  wish)  and  engage  in  discussion  with  a  workman,  the  work  of 
the  department  may  be  held  to  be  likely  to  suffer.     From  the  ex- 
perience of  several  works,  however,    it  would  appear  that  this 
freedom  of  movement  is  found  to  be  an  essential  condition  of 
the  success  of  a  committee.     The  extent  of  freedom  necessary, 
and  the  members  of  the  committee  to  whom  it  should  be  allowed, 
will  vary  with  the  size  and  the  other  circumstances  of  a  works. 

The  other  matter  which  arises  in  connection  with  the  posi- 
tion of  the  secretary  is  concerned  with  his  remuneration.     His 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        365 

secretarial  duties  may  interfere  with  his  own  work.  He  is  bound 
to  lose  time,  and,  consequently,  unless  some  arrangement  is  made 
to  indemnify  him,  he  is  bound  to  lose  wages.  In  one  case,  in 
which,  it  is  true,  the  work  is  specially  complicated  and  onerous, 
the  amount  of  time  spent  on  secretarial  work  is  said  to  amount 
to  a  total  of  30  hours  in  the  week;  in  another  case  the  loss  of 
wages  involved  has,  over  a  period  of  several  weeks,  amounted  to 
£2  a  week.  In  one  large  works,  where  the  committee  is  engaged 
to  a  great  extent  with  questions  arising  from  charitable  work, 
the  secretary  now  gives  his  whole  time  to  the  duties  of  his  posi- 
tion, and  is  paid  by  the  firm.  In  some  cases  it  would  appear 
that  the  secretary  is  paid  ordinary  time-wages  for  the  time  he 
spends  on  secretarial  business  in  working  hours ;  in  other  cases, 
where  the  work  is  premium  bonus  or  piece-work,  he  may  receive 
the  average  earnings,  or,  again,  his  companions  may  keep  his 
machine  running  in  his  absence.  It  seems,  however,  that  some 
arrangement  is  necessary  to  meet  what  is  often  a  real  difficulty. 
It  may  be  argued  that  the  management  should  pay  the  secretary 
the  full  wages  which  he  would  otherwise  have  made,  since  the 
work  he  does  conduces  to  the  better  running  of  the  establishment. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  men  might  object  to  such  a  course,  on 
the  ground  that  it  tended  to  make  the  secretary  more  dependent 
on  the  management  and  less  of  a  fellow-workman.  Another 
method,  which  is  employed  in  some  cases,  is  that  the  secretary 
should  be  reimbursed  for  lost  time  by  the  workmen.  In  certain 
cases  it  may  be  noted  that  weekly  contributions  are  paid  by  the 
workpeople  to  meet  the  expenses  of  meetings,  etc. 

Another  question,  which  is  somewhat  analogous,  concerns 
the  time  of  the  meetings  of  the  Works  Committee.  Under  one 
plan  the  meetings  may  be  held  in  the  employer's  time,  and  the 
members  may  be  paid  full  rates  during  the  time  they  spend  in  at- 
tendance. This  is  a  plan  which  is  often  adopted  when  there  are 
regular  meetings  with  the  management.  Many  committees 
which  have  no  regular  meetings  with  the  management  meet  after 
working  hours.  Another  plan,  which  has  been  suggested,  is  that 
the  meetings  should  be  held  partly  in  the  employer's  time  (the 
members  being  paid  full  rates  during  that  time)  and  partly  in 
the  time  of  the  men,  or,  in  other  words,  after  working  hours. 
This  may  present  some  difficulties,  as  some  of  the  members  may 
find  it  inconvenient  to  stay  after  working  hours.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  argued  that  this  course  best  corresponds  to  the  logic 
of  the  situation ;  management  and  men  both  gain  from  the  work 


366  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

of  a  committee,  and  it  seems  logical  that  either  side  should  sur- 
render a  part  of  its  time.  The  solution  of  the  problem  depends 
to  some  extent  on  the  length  of  the  working  day.  Members  of 
committees  have  complained  that  to  meet  at  8  or  8.30  p.  m.,  after 
3  hours  of  overtime,  was  "a  bit  hard."  Under  normal  hours 
the  attitude  would  have  been  different. 

In  the  matter  of  procedure  in  the  stricter  sense  of  the  term 
there  is  at  present  a  good  deal  of  variet.v.  Generally  the  pro- 
cedure is  somewhat  informal,  and  this,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  a 
Works  Committee,  is  perhaps  to  the  good.  The  normal  pro- 
cedure, so  far  as  one  can  speak  of  a  normal  procedure,  is  some- 
what as  follows : — 

(i)  A  workman  who  has  a  grievance  will  report  it,  directly 
or  through  the  committeeman  in  his  department,  to 
the  secretary.  Lesser  grievances,  which  do  not 
affect  a  number  of  men  or  raise  a  general  question, 
may  be  settled  at  once  by  the  secretary  with  the 
foreman  or  departmental  manager  concerned. 

(2)  Grievances  which   arc  not  thus   settled  are    taken   up 

by  the  committee,  and  brought  by  the  committee  be- 
fore the  management. 

(3)  If   grievances    or    disputes    are    not    settled    with    the 

management,  they  are  carried  to  the  branch  or  the 
district  organization  of  the  Trade  Union  or  Trade 
Unions  concerned,  and  they  go  henceforth  along  the 
ordinary  channels  of  Trade  Union  organization. 
The  effect  of  this  procedure  can  best  be  seen  by  comparing  it 
with  the  procedure  which  is  followed  in  the  absence  of  a  Works 
Committee   or   of    recognized   shop     stewards     for   the    separate 
trades.     Where   there   is   no    Works    Committee,   the   individual 
workmen,  or  a  delegation  of  workmen,  will  bring  their  case  to 
the   management,    if   they  can    get   admission;    and    failing   any 
agreement,    the    matter   will   go   straight    to    the   Trade    Union. 
Where  there  is  a  Works  Committee  the  difference  is  this:  first 
that  there  is  a  certainty  of  admission  to  the  management;  sec- 
ondly, that  instead  of  the  onus  of  stating  their  case  being  thrown 
on  the  individuals  concerned,  there  is  a  regular  machinery   (the 
officers  and  the  committee)   to  sift  the  case  and  to  state  it  for- 
mally; thirdly,  that,  instead  of  the  action  taken  being  individual 
or  sectional,  it  is  the  general  action  of  a  body  representative  of 
all  the  works ;  and,  finally,  that  there  are  two  chances  of  a  settle- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        367 

ment  being  attained  in  the  works  (first  between  the  secretary 
and  the  foreman  or  departmental  manager,  and,  failing  that,  be- 
tween the  committee  and  the  management)  before  the  question 
goes  outside  for  settlement.  The  main  difference  between  this 
procedure  and  that  adopted  when  trade  shop  stewards  are  rec- 
ognized is  much  less,  and  only  arises  on  the  third  of  the  points 
just  mentioned.  This  difference,  however,  is  important,  because 
it  involves  the  problem  of  the  delimitation  of  a  Works  Commit- 
tee's functions.  It  may  also  be  noted  that,  in  certain  cases  at 
least,  the  machinery  of  the  Works  Committee  is  brought  into 
operation  not  as  a  preliminary  to  the  question  going  before  a 
Trade  Union  branch,  but  in  support  of  a  decision  previously 
come  to  by  a  branch.  This  is  so  in  certain  iron  and  steel  works. 
The  difference,  it  may  be  said,  is  more  apparent  than  real,  be- 
cause many  of  the  branches  (and  these  the  strongest  in  numbers) 
are  in  such  cases  works  branches —  that  is  to  say,  the  member- 
ship of  the  branch  is  confined  to  men  employed  in  the  works. 
On  the  other  hand,  certain  branches  extend  their  membership 
beyond  the  works ;  and,  in  so  far  as  the  Works  Committee  takes 
up  a  case  alread}'-  entertained  by  such  a  branch  as  union  business, 
there  is  another  form  of  procedure.  This  procedure  appears  to 
have  been  adopted  in  certain  cases  with  the  acquiescence  of  the 
Trade  Union  branch  concerned.  It  seems  important  that  the 
place  of  the  Works  Committee  in  relation  to  trade  questions 
should  be  properly  defined;  otherwise  there  may  be  dangers  of 
overlapping  and  confusion  through  (a)  the  diversion  of  a  purely 
trade  question  to  the  Works  Committee,  when  it  ought  to  go 
through  the  ordinary  Trade  Union  channels,  or  (b)  the  use  by  a 
Trade  Union  branch  of  the  Works  Committee  in  support  of  a 
case  which  it  should  properly  call  upon  the  oflficials  of  its  Union 
to  handle. 

Three  other  matters  of  procedure  call  for  notice.  One  of 
these  is  the  use  of  what  may  be  called  "the  referendum."  A 
Works  Committee,  when  its  members  feel  that  a  matter  is  im- 
portant, and  that  it  is  necessary  that  they  should  ascertain  and 
carry  with  them  the  opinion  of  the  workers  either  in  a  depart- 
ment or  in  all  the  works,  may  summon  a  general  meeting  and 
bring  the  matter  forward  for  discussion  in  that  meeting.  There 
may  be  no  rules  to  decide  when  this  should  be  done,  and  it  may 
be  done  at  different  stages,  either  before  a  matter  has  been  dis- 
cussed with  the  management  or  subsequently  to  such  discussion; 
but  the  possibility  of  such  a  general  meeting  enables  the  com- 


368  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

mittee  to  make  sure  that  its  policy  will  be  adopted  by  the  work- 
men concerned,  and  it  puts  it  in  a  position  to  assure  the  manage- 
ment that  a  policy  thus  confirmed  can  really  be  carried  into  efTcct. 
In  certain  industries  the  regular  shop  meeting  is  a  feature  of 
shop  organization.  This  is  so,  for  example,  in  furnishing  and  in 
the  woodworking  side  of  the  aircraft  industry  in  London.  The 
shop  meeting  is  really  a  factory  meeting,  and  is  held  once  a 
month. 

Another  matter  of  procedure  is  one  which  touches  the  man- 
agement and  directors  of  a  firm.  It  is  important  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  firm,  who  meet  the  committee,  or  (if  it  is  a 
joint  body)  sit  on  the  committee,  should  belong  to  the  highest 
rank,  and  should  include  the  general  works  manager  (or,  if 
there  is  one,  the  labour  superintendent)^  and  one  or  more  of  the 
directors.  A  great  part  of  the  value  of  the  Works  Committee, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  men,  is.  that  it  brings  them  into 
contact,  and  gives  them  an  opportunity  of  discussion,  with  the 
authorities  witli  whom,  in  its  absence,  they  seldom  get  into  close 
touch,  and  then  only  on  points  of  difference.  Nor  is  it  only  the 
workmen  who  stand  to  gain  if  the  highest  rank  of  management  is 
represented.  Members  of  the  firm  who  are  primarily  occupied 
with  finance  or  technique  will  be  brought  into  contact  with  those 
questions  of  labour  which  are  the  fundamental  problems  of  in- 
dustry, and  in  discussing  these  questions  with  the  representatives 
of  the  workmen  they  are  likely  to  gain  a  deeper  insight  into  the 
best  methods  of  conducting  the  industrj'. 

Lastly,  there  are  questions  connected  with  the  keeping  of 
minutes,  the  drawing  up  of  agenda,  the  presentation  of  com- 
plaints, and  the  like.  Where  regular  joint  meetings  are  held  it 
is  common  for  a  complete  record  of  each  meeting  to  be  made  in 
shorthand  by  a  member  of  the  staff  and  for  the  workpeople's 
secretary  to  make  notes  of  tlie  proceedings;  minutes  based  on  the 
complete  record  may  be  circulated  among  the  members  of  the 
committee  after  the  meeting.  Even  where  the  committee  of 
workpeople  as  a  whole  does  not  meet  the  management,  it  may 
supply  the  latter  with  copies  of  the  minutes  which  concern  the 
management.  It  is  common  for  the  management  to  supply  typ- 
ing facilities  for  the  duplication  of  minutes  and  of  agenda.     In 

1  A  particularly  interesting  development  during  the  war  has  been  the 
appointment  to  the  management  staffs  of  several  establishments  of  persons 
whose  chief  function  is  to  deal  with  labour  questions.  The  success  of  a 
Works  Committee  may  to  a  considerable  extent  depend  upon  the  status 
and  qualifications  of  such   an  official. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  369 

some  works  complaints  made  to  the  committee  must  be  in  writing. 
This  rule  has  sometimes  bc^en  introduced  in  order  to  check  the 
making  of  frivolous  compla)nts  or  inaccurate  statements;  it  may 
be  compared  with  a  metho  I  of  the  "chapel,"  where  a  member 
may  call  a  special  meeting  by  placing  a  shilling  (or  other  sum) 
"on  the  stone"  on  pain  of  forfeiting  his  shilling  if  the  chapel 
decides  that  his  complaint  is  groundless. 


Functions 

Since  Works  Committees  are  of  different  types,  it  is  obvious 
that  their  functions  vary  considerably.  In  the  first  place  there  is 
the  distinction  already  mentioned  under  the  head  of  nomencla- 
ture. A  Welfare  Committee  is  concerned  with  all  questions  that 
affect  the  comfort  and  physical  well  being  of  the  workman  while 
he  is  engaged  on  his  occupation;  an  Industrial  Committee  is 
concerned  with  industrial  conditions  in  general.  Often  a  Works 
Committee  will  undertake  both  sets  of  functions,  but  some  com- 
mittees may  be  confined,  primarily  at  any  rate,  to  the  working  of 
a  system  of  bonus  on  output  or  premium  bonus  or  piece-rates ; 
others  may  be  confined  to  questions  of  dilution ;  others  may  have 
a  general  and  undefined  scope  which  depends  on  an  unwritten 
understanding  between  management  and  men. 

There  are  several  questions  of  a  general  character  which  de- 
serve some  attention,  before  we  turn  to  the  detailed  functions 
actually  discharged  by  various  Works  Committees.  Are  these 
functions  always  consultative,  or  are  they  sometimes  executive? 
This  raises  another  question — is  it  possible,  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  word,  to  speak  of  a  Joint  Works  Committee?  What,  again, 
are  the  functions  of  the  management,  and  how  far  may  a  Works 
Committee  trench  on  these  functions?  Finally,  what  is  meant  by 
"recognition,"  and  what  is  the  effect  of  recognition  on  the  func- 
tions and  powers  of  a  Works  Committee? 

As  far  as  the  first  question  is  concerned,  it  would  appear 
that  the  functions  of  a  Works  Committee  are  practically  always 
consultative.  Usually  a  Works  Committee  can  bring  matters  be- 
fore the  management  and  discuss  them  with  the  management ;  it 
can  press  its  views  about  these  matters  on  the  management ;  in 
the  last  resort,  it  can  induce  the  Trade  Union  organization  to 
call  a  strike.  But  the  Works  Committee  cannot  usually,  as  such, 
carry  its  views  into  action,  or  ensure  that  they  shall  be  carried 


370  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

into  action,  by  any  direct  machinery.  The  management  has  the 
executive  power,  and  unless  the  management  is  impressed  by  the 
representations  of  the  members  of  the  committee,  or  by  the  sanc- 
tion which  lies  behind  them,  those  representations  will  not  lead 
to  executive  action.  This  would  appear  to  be  usual  even  where 
the  Works  Committee  is  a  Joint  Committee.  There  are,  indeed, 
certain  cases  in  which  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the  members 
of  such  a  Joint  Committee  is  carried  into  effect.  This  is  so  in 
the  Pit-head  and  certain  other  committees  which  have  the  power 
to  fine  bad  timekeepers ;  and  in  certain  engineering  establish- 
ments the  question  of  prosecuting  bad  timekeepers  before  the 
Munitions  Tribunal  is  decided  by  Joint  Works  Committees.  But, 
so  far  as  can  be  discovered,  the  general  custom  is  to  the  con- 
trary. Unanimity  must  be  attained;  the  management  must  be 
convinced,  and  both  sides  must  freely  agree  together,  before  ex- 
ecutive action  is  taken.  The  operation  of  a  Joint  Committee  is 
really  in  the  nature  of  consultation  between  two  parties — con- 
sultation which,  if  it  results  in  unanimity,  results  in  action,  but 
not  otherwise.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  think  in  terms  of  voting, 
or  to  think  that  even  if  there  is  voting,  its  result  is  a  formal 
decision  by  a  majority  vote.  What  happens  is  rather  discussion 
by  which  misunderstanding  is  often  removed,  and  upon  which,  if 
unanimity  is  attained  between  the  two  sides,  action  will  ensue. 
It  follows,  therefore,  that  generally  we  cannot  speak  of  Joint 
Committees,  if  by  Joint  Committees  we  understand  joint  execu- 
tive councils  acting  by  the  vote  of  the  majority.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  Joint  Committees,  if  by  Joint  Committees  we  un- 
derstand deliberative  meetings  of  both  sides,  always  attended  by 
both  sides,  though  often  accompanied  by  separate  meetings  of  the 
two  sides. ^ 

A  question  of  importance,  when  we  are  considering  the  func- 
tions of  a  Works  Committee,  is  the  definition  of  the  term  "man- 
agement." It  may  be  urged,  on  the  one  side,  that  the  functions 
of  a  Works  Committee  should  not  be  such  as  to  interfere  with 

1  The  division  between  executive  and  advisory  powers  in  a  scheme  now 
under  consideration  for  an  engineering  works  may  be  noted.  It  is  pro- 
posed that  the  former  should  include  (i)  those  powers  conferred  by  the 
Trade  Unions  and  in  accordance  with  the  constitution  or  resolutions  of  the 
local  Allied  Engineering  Trades  and  (2)  those  conferred  by  the  firm.  The 
suggested  first  list  of  executive  powers  contains  the  following: — determina- 
tion of  hours  of  work  (with  minimum  of  50  per  week);  messroom;  heat- 
ing, lighting,  sanitary  matters,  &c.;  ambulance;  collections,  supervision  of 
notice  boards,  entertainments,  &c.;  proposed  technical  lending  library  and 
works  magazine;  and  organization  of  the  Sports  Association.  The  ad- 
visoiy  functions  include  the  regulation  of  piecework;    the  engagement,  dis- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        371 

management;  it  may  be  urged,  on  the  other,  that  if  a  Works 
Committee  is  to  be  debarred  from  questions  of  management  it 
loses  reality  and  becomes  a  mere  form.  Much,  therefore,  de- 
pends on  the  sense  in  which  the  term  management  is  used.  Is 
the  work  of  the  foremen  part  of  management?  Or  does  the 
word  denote  the  higher  organization  of  industry?  It  would  ap- 
pear that  a  Works  Committee,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  value  in  venti- 
lating and  removing  grievances,  must  be  in  a  position  to  ventilate 
grievances  arising  from  the  conduct  of  foremen  or  overlookers. 
Such  grievances  touch  the  worker  most  closely  in  his  daily  work, 
and  if  they  cannot  be  discussed  the  committee  loses  a  sphere  of 
action  in  which  it  might  be  of  the  greatest  service.  It  is  true 
that  if  a  committee  has  the  right  of  criticising  the  action  of 
foremen,  difficulties  may  arise.  Foremen  may  feel  that  their  au- 
thority is  undermined ;  they  may  feel  that  they  are  being  made 
responsible  not  only,  as  heretofore,  to  the  management  (a  re- 
sponsibility they  know  and  understand),  but  also  to  the  commit- 
tee; they  may  feel  that,  with  a  dual  responsibility,  their  position 
becomes  exceedingly  difficult.  These  are  real  problems.  In 
many  instances,  however,  they  seem  to  have  been  surmounted ; 
and  if  they  prove  serious,  they  may  perhaps  be  met,  to  some  ex- 
tent, if  the  general  manager  arranges  to  meet  the  foremen  in 
advance,  and  to  discuss  with  them  criticisms  and  grievances 
which  have  come  from  the  Works  Committee. 

The  last  of  the  general  questions  raised  by  a  consideration  of 
the  functions  and  position  of  a  Works  Committee  is  that  of 
"recognition."  This,  again,  is  a  term  which  seems  to  be  under- 
stood in  different  senses,  and  which  it  is  difficult  to  define.  A 
committee  may  be  held,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  manage- 
ment, not  to  be  recognized,  even  when  the  management  is  in 
constant  touch  with  its  secretary,  and  even  when  it  consents  to 
meet  those  members  of  the  committee  who  represent  a  depart- 
ment which  has  a  grievance.  Here  the  point  would  appear  to 
be  that  the  management  does  not,  as   such,   formally  meet  the 


charge,  dilution  and  transfer  of  labour  (excluding  disciplinary  discharge), 
training  and  education  of  apprentices;  suggestion  of  improvements 
in  methods;  timekeeping,  &c.  It  is  proposed  that  seven  sub-committees 
be  formed,  each  sub-committee  to  deal  with  one  or  more  of  the  above- 
mentioned  functions,  e.g.  a  sub-committee  for  hours  of  work,  engagements 
and  discharges,  and  timekeeping;  a  sub-committe  for  messroom;  and  a 
sub-committee,  advisory  and  negotiators,  for  piecework.  There  is  this 
reservation  in  regard  to  executive  functions  that  if  capital  expenditure  is 
involved  authority  should  be  obtained  from  the  firm  before  such  expendi- 
ture is  incurred. 


372  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

whole  committee.  In  another  case  a  system  almost  exactly  paral- 
lel— a  system  under  which  the  management  interviews  four  of 
five  members  of  the  committee — is  described  as  one  of  "recogni- 
tion." The  term  "recognition"  thus  appears  to  have  no  fixed 
meaning ;  and  it  may  be  concluded  that  what  matters  is  the  fact 
of  consultation  between  a  committee  and  the  management  rather 
than  any  formal  pronouncement  about  the  fact. 

In  the  preceding  paragraphs  the  functions  of  a  Works  Com- 
mittee have  been  discussed  with  reference  to  the  management. 
It  is  obvious  that  they  must  also  be  discussed  with  reference  to 
Trade  Union  organization.  A  Works  Committee  must  stand  in 
some  sort  of  relation  to  the  district  committees  of  the  Unions  to 
which  the  workmen  in  the  works  belong,  and  some  demarcation 
of  functions,  whether  explicit  or  implicit,  has  to  be  made.  The 
relations  vary,  and  the  demarcation  is  not  alwaj-s  easy  to  make. 
Generally  the  division  is  said  to  be  that  questions  of  general 
application — district  rates  of  wages,  hours  of  work,  and  other 
district  or  national  conditions  of  work — are  regarded  by  Works 
Committees  as  outside  their  sphere,  and  such  questions  are  left 
to  be  settled  by  the  employer  or  association  of  employers  with  the 
Trade  Unions.  On  the  other  hand,  questions  of  a  particular  ap- 
plication relating  to  a  works — for  example,  a  piece-rate  for  a 
particular  job  for  which  it  is  impossible  to  lay  down  any  general 
piece-rate  for  the  district — are  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  func- 
tions of  a  Works  Committee.  Such  a  committee  may  thus  deal 
(i)  with  the  particular  application  in  the  works  of  a  principle 
general  to  the  district,  and  (2)  with  questions  which  are  entirely 
peculiar  to  the  works.  But  the  general  problem  of  the  relations 
of  Works  Committees  and  Trade  Union  organization  is  one  that 
demands  separate  treatment,  and  it  will  accordingly  be  treated 
in  a  subsequent  section. 

The  powers  of  the  management  and  the  powers  of  the  local 
Trade  Union  organization  may  be  said  to  constitute  two  points 
more  or  less  fixed,  and  the  powers  of  a  Works  Committee  are 
naturally  determined  with  reference  to  these  two  points  in  ways 
that  vary  according  as  those  points  vary.  Turning  to  the  Works 
Committee  in  itself,  we  may  distinguish  two  main  types  of  func- 
tion. In  the  first  type  a  committee  is  primarily  concerned  with 
some  one  particular  thing — a  scheme  of  dilution,  a  system  of 
bonus,  or  a  method  of  profit-sharing.  This  does  not  prevent 
such  a  committee    from   dealing   incidentally  with  other  things. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  373 

On  the  contrary,  a  committee  on  dilution  will  be  led  to  discuss 
the  wages  o£  dilutees  and  other  questions ;  a  committee  on  a 
bonus  system  will  be  led  to  deal  with  time-keeping  and  other 
matters  which  aflfect  the  bonus.  A  committee,  therefore,  which 
is  primarily  and  formally  concerned  with  a  particular  thing  may 
actually  be  something  of  the  nature  of  a  general  Works  Com- 
mittee. When  once  an  organization  is  created,  if  only  for  a  sin- 
gle activity,  it  will  naturally  become  a  centre  for  other  activities ; 
the  management,  finding  a  representative  organization  which  it 
can  consult,  may  consult  it  on  broader  issues ;  and  vice  versa 
the  representative  organization,  meeting  the  management  to 
discuss  one  issue,  may  readily  tend  to  bring  forward  other  issues. 
The  tendency  for  this  to  come  about  is  greater  if  the  committee 
is  one  of  shop  stewards  who  are  charged  by  their  Unions  with  a 
general  supervision  of  conditions. 

In  the  second  type  a  committee  is  from  the  first  general 
in  its  range,  and  is  formed  to  deal  with  the  general  industrial 
conditions  of  a  works.  One  such  committee  has  for  its  pro- 
vince (l)  to  enquire  into  grievances  reported  by  workmen; 
(2)  to  bring  before  and  discuss  with  the  management  griev- 
ances that  it  considers  genuine;  (3)  to  consider  complaints 
about  wages  and  piece-rates  which  concern  individuals ;  (4)  to 
consider  questions  relating  to  the  health  and  safety  of  the 
workmen;  (5)  to  consult  with  the  management  on  the  inter- 
pretation of  awards,  orders  and  circulars ;  and  (6)  to  consider 
generally  the  conditions  of  work  in  the  establishment.  This 
may  be  considered  to  be  fairly  typical.  Another  committee,  pri- 
marily concerned  with  piece-rates,  has  also  dealt  with  ques- 
tions of  ventilation  and  sanitation,  complaints  about  the  de- 
cisions of  foremen,  arrangements  of  shifts  and  of  hours  of  ad- 
mission to  the  works,  the  allocation  of  piece-work  and  time- 
work,  and  the  interpretation  of  official  orders  and  circulars. 
Other  matters  handled  by  Works  Committees  include  works 
discipline,  especially  timekeeping,  methods  of  paying  wages, 
hours  of  overtime  and  the  like.  The  questionnaire  which  is 
printed  in  the  first  Appendix  contains  a  list  of  possible  func- 
tions ;  and  it  may  be  said  at  once  that  different  Works  Com- 
mittees exemplify  all  these  functions  and  that  some  exercise 
functions  which  are  not  included  in  the  list. 

Instances  may  be  cited  of  committees  which  are  tending  to 
exercise,    or    actually    exercise,    peculiar    and    interesting    func- 


374  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

tions.  In  several  cases  Works  Committees  have  made  sugges- 
tions for  economics  in  the  running  of  machinery,  and  it  is 
agreed  on  both  sides  that  the  committees  have  brought  to 
light  weak  spots  in  organization.  A  striking  feature  is  the 
keenness  of  certain  committees,  or  of  the  more  active  members 
of  the  committees,  to  discuss  the  after-war  situation,  and  this  in 
relation  not  only  to  working  conditions,  but  also  to  such  prob- 
lems as  the  proper  employment  of  plant.  Another  case  is  equally 
interesting.  This  is  the  case  of  a  works  in  which  a  Works 
Tribunal  has  been  instituted  in  lieu  of  the  Local  Munitions 
Tribunal.  The  men  elect  a  jury  of  twelve  and  a  chairman;  and 
this  tribunal  has  been  successful  in  bringing  about  a  great  im- 
provement in  discipline  and  time-keeping.*  An  incident  in  this 
works,  though  it  does  not  bear  directly  on  the  matter  of  Works 
Committees,  is  indirectly  of  value  as  showing  that  consultation 
with  the  workmen  may  be  of  great  service  to  the  management. 
A  question  arose  of  the  introduction  of  dilution  into  the  works, 
and  the  men  in  the  pattern-making  shops  objected  to  its  introduc- 
tion. They  were  interviewed  by  the  managing  director,  who 
asked  what  alternative  suggestion  they  could  make  for  increasing 
output.  They  answered  that  they  believed  they  could  easily  increase 
their  output  if  they  had  additional  equipment.  A  tool  catalogue 
was  put  before  them :  they  suggested  the  purchase  of  a  number 
of  tools  costing  in  all  nearly  £2,000.  The  tools  were  bought, 
and  the  output  was  increased  by  50  per  cent,  without 
dilution. 

The  range  of  functions  which  a  Works  Committee  can  effi- 
ciently undertake  is  necessarily  indefinite,  and  a  subject  of 
contention  not  only  between  employers  and  workpeople  but 
also  between  different  groups  both  of  employers  and  of  work- 
people. Some  of  the  questions  on  which  there  is  considerable 
difference  of  opinion  may  be  noted;  they  include  questions  af- 
fecting promotion,  dismissal,  the  suggestion  of  improved  proces- 
ses, lectures  and  education  in  trade  technique,  and  works 
discipline. 

'  This  is  a  very  interesting  matter,  especially  in  view  of  the  argument 
in  the  report  of  the  N.W.  Commission  on  Industrial  Unrest,  that  joint 
committees  of  employers  and  employed  would  administer  "industrial  law" 
better  than  legal  tribunals.  The  existence  of  a  number  of  Joint  Commit- 
tees which  exercise  such  functions  has  been  mentioned.  The  particular 
interest  of  the  above  mentioned  Works'  Tribunal  is  that  it  is  not  a  Joint 
Committee  but  is  wholly  composed  of  workpeople.  The  firm  has  no  status 
in  the  court,  merely  appearing  by  its  representative  as  it  would  in  the 
Local  Munitions  Tribunals  Procedure  is  quite  formal,  and  the  firm's  rep- 
resentative  is   expected   to   address   the  chairman   as   "Sir." 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        375 

The  question  of  alleged  wrongful  dismissal  is  already 
handled  by  the  Trade  Unions,  and  there  is  a  considerable 
body  of  opinion  among  both  workpeople  and  employers  that, 
at  least  in  the  first  instance,  it  is  a  suitable  function  for  a 
Works  Committee.  Dismissal  for  such  a  reason  as  alleged 
disobedience,  it  is  argued,  may  be  only  a  cloak  for  victim- 
ization; reasons  may  be  invented  by  a  foreman  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  particular  men.  The  claim  is  made  that  the  other 
workpeople  are  likely  to  understand  the  psychological  influ- 
ences underlying  such  action,  and  that  no  such  dismissal  should 
be  made  until  the  circumstances  have  been  discussed  with  the 
Works  Committee.  The  situation  in  which  slackness  of  work 
compels  a  considerable  reduction  in  the  number  of  employees  is 
more  complicated;  on  the  one  hand,  workpeople  complain  that 
the  opportunity  is  used  by  certain  employers  to  get  rid  not  only 
of  the  less  efficient  employees  but  also  of  those  who  have  shown 
themselves  active  in  support  of  their  fellows — that  is,  to  cover 
up  victimization ;  on  the  other  hand,  employers  complain  that 
workpeople  are  exclusively  biased  in  favour  of  the  claims  of 
seniority,  and  make  little,  if  any,  allowance  for  differences  in 
efficiency.  There  would  appear  to  be  some  truth  in  both  conten- 
tions. A  frank  discussion  would  probably  tend  to  remove  the 
causes  of  the  workpeople's  complaints  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
produce  a  balance  between  the  claims  of  seniority  and  of  effi- 
ciency satisfactory  to  both  employers  and  employees.  What  is 
perhaps  even  more  important  is  a  further  argument ;  such  frank 
discussion  would  lead  to  plans  for  the  alleviation  in  the  particular 
works  of  the  effects  of  a  general  slackness.  It  is  not  contended 
that  any  general  remedy  for  unemployment  can  be  found  on 
these  lines ;  all  that  is  suggested  is  that  local  and  individual 
effort  may  help  to  solve  the  problem.  Dismissals  due  to  the  in- 
troduction of  new  machinery  or  new  methods  are  perhaps  of  a 
kind  with  w'hich  a  Works  Committee  might  properly  deal. 
Workpeople  are  ready  to  acknowledge  the  benefits  due  to 
improvements  and  yet  naturally  resent  such  improvements  where 
they  involve  the  destruction  of  their  craft  or  sudden  loss  of  em- 
ployment. It  may  be  suggested  that  what  individual  employers 
have  done  in  the  past — namely,  to  make  arrangements  by  which 
the  dislocation  of  livelihood  is  reduced — can  be  carried  out  more 
generally;  and  that  in  individual  establishments  adjustments  for 
such  a  purpose  are  a  suitable  subject  for  discussion  by  a  Works 


376  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Committee.  It  is,  of  course,  a  subject  of  vital  importance  to  the 
Trade  Unions;  it  is  indeed  an  aspect  of  the  process  of  dilution 
as  seen  at  work  in  the  normal  industrial  conditions  of  peace  time. 
Though  the  Trade  Unions  could  not  be  expected  to  hand  the 
matter  over  to  a  Works  Committee,  there  appears  to  be  room  for 
the  latter  to  deal  with  the  question  within  certain  limits. 

The  appointment  of  foremen  is  a  question  on  which  there 
may  be  said  to  be  three  groups  of  opinions. ^  Many  employers 
hold  that  it  is  purely  a  management  question.  The  opposite  ex- 
treme to  this  is  the  claim  made  by  a  considerable  section  of 
Trade  Unionists  that  the  workmen  should  choose  their  own 
foremen.  A  position  intermediate  to  these  two  extremes  is 
taken  up  by  a  certain  number  of  employers  and  by  a  section  of 
workpeople;  the  appointment  (they  feel)  should  be  made  by  the 
management,  but  it  should  be  submitted  to  the  Works  Commit- 
tee before  it  becomes  effective.  Even  this  intermediate  position, 
however,  is  not  really  a  common  position;  there  are  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  appointment 
should  come  before  the  Works  Committee^that  is  to  say, 
whether  or  no  the  Works  Committee  should  have  power  to  veto 
the  appointment.  Those  employers  who  are  prepared  to  submit 
such  appointments  to  a  Works  Committee  are  for  the  most  part 
of  the  opinion  that  this  should  only  be  done  in  order  to  explain 
the  reasons  for  their  choice.  This,  they  hold,  will  tend  to  re- 
move obstacles  which  might  otherwise  be  put  in  the  way  of  the 
appointment.  A  considerable  body  of  workpeople,  on  the  other 
hand,  hold  an  intermediate  position  which  comes  nearer  to  elec- 
tion of  foremen  by  the  workpeople;  they  think  that  the  Works 
Committee  should  have  the  right  to  veto  the  choice  made  by  the 
management.    A  few  employers  consider  that  this — or  even  direct 

*  This  question  of  promotion  has  been  discussed  in  one  aspect  only, 
vis.,  in  relation  to  the  appointment  of  foremen.  It  is,  of  course,  much 
more  general,  and  is  in  many  of  its  aspects  a  matter  of  agreement  between 
Employers'  Associations  and  Trade  Unions.  Such  agreements  may  regu- 
late progress  within  a  trade  or  a  group  of  connected  trades,  and  neces- 
sarily involve,  among  other  questions,  that  of  standard  rates  of  wage?. 
The  discussion  of  promotion  in  this  wider  sense  of  the  term  could  come 
within  a  Works  Committee's  functions  only  where  the  Trade  Unions  make 
no  conditions  except  the  payment  of  standard  rates — and  then  only  within 
the  limits  of  this  condition.  The  promotion  to  foremanship  may  be  said 
to  be  distinct,  in  that  a  foreman  is  a  member  of  the  management  staff, 
and  directly  concerned  with  such  employer's  interests  as  the  maintenance 
of  discipline.  The  dividing  line,  however,  is  not  well  defined  in  certain 
cases,  and  the  fact  that  certain  Unions  which  largely  control  promotions 
among  the  men  paid  by  wages  have  also  organized  the  lower  grades  of 
the  staff,  paid  by  salary  or  standing  wage,  complicates  the  issue.  In  some 
of  these  cases  certain  Unions  claim  the  right  to   intervene. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        377 

election — may  be  possible  when  a  Works  Committee,  through 
the  experience  gained  in  consultations  about  such  appointments, 
has  learned  to  estimate  all  the  qualities  necessary  in  a  foreman. 
It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  Works  Committees  very 
often  discuss  the  conduct  of  foremen.  The  conclusion  then 
reached,  that  such  discussion  was  a  desirable  function  for  a  com- 
mittee, would  appear  to  involve  as  a  corollary  that  of  consulta- 
tion about  appointments.  This  latter  function  would  tend  to 
remove  the  necessity  for  the  former. 

Among  the  results  expected  from  the  giving  of  a  larger 
measure  of  responsibility  for  industrial  conditions  to  the  work- 
people is  a  considerable  increase  in  efficiency.  This  is  said  to  be 
possible  if  the  ability  of  the  workpeople  to  suggest  improved 
processes  and  methods  is  properly  used.  The  experience  of  in- 
dividual firms  would  appear  to  confirm  this  contention.  Many 
firms  have  for  years  past  had  awards  schemes  in  operation,  and 
in  certain  cases  these  have  stimulated  important  suggestions  for 
improvements.  The  fact  that  the  "suggestion  box"  is  often 
stated  to  have  proved  a  failure  is  not  necessarily  a  condemnation 
of  the  idea ;  it  may  only  mean  that  the  somewhat  mechanical 
and  uninspiring  device  is  in  itself  an  inadequate  stimulus.  A 
comparison  of  the  results  secured  in  establishments  more  or  less 
similar  (so  far  as  work  is  concerned)  would  suggest  that  the 
success  of  an  awards  scheme  depends  to  a  great  extent  upon  the 
action  of  the  management.  Where  the  management  gains  the 
confidence  of  the  workpeople,  and  has  devised  methods  of  con- 
sidering suggestions  which  appeal  to  the  workpeople,  there  is  a 
much  more  powerful  response  than  in  works  where,  though  there 
may  be  a  suggestion  box,  these  conditions  are  absent.  Many  em- 
ployers and  workpeople  agree  that  a  Works  Committee  may  not 
only  produce  the  atmosphere  necessary  to  the  stimulation  of  sug- 
gestions, but  may  also  help  to  arrange  for  the  proper  investiga- 
tion of  proposals  made  by  workpeople.  In  this  connection,  as  in 
the  quite  different  field  of  grievances,  it  would  appear  to  be  im- 
portant that  suggestions  which  look  to  be  worthless  should, 
nevertheless,  be  considered.  To  put  the  matter  on  the  lowest 
ground,  this  will  probably  pay  in  the  long  run.  The  fundamental 
matter  is  that  everyone  should  be  encouraged  to  think  about  the 
processes  and  the  organization  of  the  works.  It  should  be  noted 
that  workpeople  very  commonly  complain  of  the  staff's  attitude 
on  such  matters;  any  suggestion,  they  say,  is  apt  to  be  brushed 


378  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

aside  with  the  remark  that  they  are  not  paid  to  think  but  to 
work.  The  obstruction  in  such  cases  may  be  a  foreman  or  man- 
ager, and  even  though  the  higher  management  may  be  sym- 
pathetic, it  may  never  hear  of  a  suggestion.  His  mates  also  are 
sometimes  not  very  encouraging  to  a  workman  with  ideas.  For 
lack,  therefore,  of  encouragement,  or  because  of  actual  dis- 
couragement, ideas  of  value  are  held  back  and  the  capacity  for 
ideas  destroyed.  How  best  to  arrange  that  suggestions  will  be 
guaranteed  an  adequate  consideration  is  not  a  direct  concern  of 
this  report,  except  in  so  far  as  a  Works  Committee  may  be  em- 
ployed for  the  purpose.  It  is  doubtful  whether  a  general  Works 
Committee  is  a  suitable  body  with  which  to  discuss  the  value  of 
a  change  in  a  particular  process  or  machine,  and  the  use  of  a 
small  subcommittee  for  this  purpose  may  be  suggested.  The 
argument  has  been  used  that  a  man  will  place  his  ideas  before 
two  or  three  responsible  work-mates  for  their  criticism,  but  not 
before  a  big  committee.  If  the  small  committee  thought  the 
proposal  sound,  it  would  then  go  straight  to  the  higher  manage- 
ment. For  more  general  questions  of  organization,  as  distinct 
from  questions  of  individual  methods  or  machines,  the  general 
Works  Committee,  or  in  large  works  a  Departmental  Committee, 
would  probably  be  a  suitable  body.  Testimony  to  the  value  of 
suggestions  made  by  both  of  these  has  been  received  from  em- 
ployers. A  further  suggestion  with  a  direct  bearing  on  this  sub- 
ject has  been  made;  that  the  education  which  certain  firms  pro- 
vide for  sections  of  their  staff,  such  as  foremen  and  underforc- 
men,  might  be  extended  to  representative  workpeople.  This  may 
take  the  form  of  educational  lectures,  which  will  widen  the  out- 
look of  the  specialized  worker  by  showing  him  how  his  own 
activities  fit  into  those  of  others  and  into  the  general  plan  of  the 
establishment's  activities.  ^ 

The  attitude  to  a  Works  Committee's  assumption  of  re- 
sponsibility for  discipline  varies  very  considerably,  both  among 
employers  and  among  workpeople.  There  is  a  considerable  body 
of  experience,  and  it  would  appear  that,  though  there  are  ex- 
amples to  the  contrary.  Works  Committees  which  undertake  dis- 
ciplinary functions  usually  do  so  with  success.  There  is,  at  the 
same  time,  a  very  general  demand  among  workpeople  that,  if 
Joint  Committees  are  to  discuss  the  bad  timekeeping  and  other 
mistakes  of  the  employees,  they  should  have  similar  powers  of 

*  Another  interesting  feature  in  this  connection  is  the  development  of 
Works   Magazines. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        379 

dealing  with  faults  on  the  side  of  the  management.  In  a  num- 
ber of  establishments  committees  regulate  fines  or  deductions 
made  from  bonus  because  of  lost-time,  negligence,  damage  or 
other  cause. 

A  note  of  caution  may  be  added.  There  is  some  evidence  that 
a  small  minority  of  employers  may  endeavour  to  use  a  Works 
Committee  in  order  more  easily  to  impose  penal  conditions  which 
are  objected  to  by  the  main  body  of  workpeople.  This  is  op- 
posed to  the  whole  spirit  which  makes  a  Works  Committee  a 
success,  and  is  bound  to  produce  friction.  A  somewhat  similar 
attitude  is  taken  up  by  a  small  minority  of  workpeople  who  ap- 
pear to  desire  that  no  joint  meetings  should  be  held  in  an  or- 
derly or  businesslike  manner. 

It  may  be  added  in  conclusion  of  this  section,  that  the  opin- 
ion, and  indeed  the  practice,  of  a  number  of  firms  inclines  in  the 
direction  of  ad  hoc  committees.  It  is  held  that  this  enables  the 
firm  to  consult  the  men  who  are  directly  concerned,  and  that  it 
has  the  additional  advantage  of  giving  greater  reality  to  the  con- 
sultation. When  consultation  takes  place  on  an  immediate  and 
definite  issue,  it  is  said  to  result  in  practical  and  useful  discus- 
sion ;  and  the  fear  is  expressed  that  consultation,  in  the  absence 
of  such  an  issue,  may  only  be  an  empty  form.  The  inclusion  in 
such  committees  of  the  shop  stewards  who  represent  the  classes 
of  men  concerned — as  is  often  the  case — gives  a  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  Trade  Union  or  Unions  whose  standard  may  be 
affected. 

Relations  with   Trade   Unions 

Something  has  already  been  said  in  the  sections  dealing  with 
the  constitution,  procedure  and  functions  of  Works  Committees, 
concerning  the  relations  between  such  committees  and  Trade 
Union  organization.  The  position  is  in  certain  respects  some- 
what paradoxical ;  the  problem  as  seen  by  most  Trade  Unionists 
is  that  of  strengthening  the  Trade  Union  organization  in  the 
workshop,  but,  on  the  one  hand,  many  employers  prefer  not  to 
deal  with  the  shop  stewards  in  the  works  but  with  the  outside 
Trade  Union  organization,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  some  ele- 
ments in  Trade  Unionism  prefer  that  it  should  stand  outside  the 
workshop  and  handle  questions  in  each  works  from  the  outside, 
while  some  unionist  shop  stewards  consider  that  their  Works 
Committees  should  not  be  subject  to  any  control  of  the  Trade 


38o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Unions.  The  general  question  of  the  relation  and  the  relative 
weight  and  power  of  Works  Committees  and  district  organiza- 
tions is  one  which  is  likely  to  be  settled  gradually  in  experience 
and  actual  working.  Here  it  may  be  convenient  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  some  considerations  which  appear  to  affect  this  general 
question,  particularly  as  seen  in  the  engineering  industry. 

The  first  consideration  is  that  the  change  in  the  conditions 
of  working  have  made  necessary  the  development  of  new  ma- 
chinery for  collective  bargaining.  Since  the  questions  for  which 
this  machinery  is  required  are,  to  a  great  extent,  peculiar  to  in- 
dividual establishments,  the  collective  bargaining,  if  it  is  to  be 
done  at  all,  must  be  carried  through  in  each  establishment.  At 
the  same  time,  unless  the  results  are  to  impair  the  standard  con- 
ditions which  it  is  the  business  of  the  Unions  to  uphold,  the 
work  must  be  entrusted  to  representatives  of  the  Unions.  Thus 
there  has  come  about  a  natural  development  in  the  functions  of 
the  shop  stewards.  Previously  they  had  to  see  that  no  encroach- 
ments were  made  on  standard  conditions ;  now  they  may  have  the 
more  positive  duty  of  participating  in  the  settlement  of  piece- 
work prices  in  terms  of  these  standard  conditions.  ^ 

In  regard  to  the  changes  just  mentioned,  and  in  regard  also 
to  dilution,  the  interests  of  the  workpeople  belonging  to  different 
skilled  Unions  are  more  or  less  the  same.  Tliis,  combined  with 
the  natural  community  in  the  works,  probably  accounts  for  the 
fact  that  certain  apparent  difliculties  of  representation  are,  as  a 
rule,  easily  overcome.  The  impossibility  of  so  representing 
different  Unions  on  a  Works  Committee  that  satisfaction  is  se- 
cured to  all  is  alleged  to  be  such  a  difficulty.  So  far  as  the 
skilled  trades  are  concerned — at  least  in  engineering — the  diffi- 
culty would  not  appear  to  be  serious.  In  many  cases  where  even 
a  small  minority  only  of  the  skilled  Unions  have  direct  repre- 
sentation there  would  appear  to  be  no  dissatisfaction. 

As  between  the  members  of  skilled  and  unskilled  Unions  the 
position  is  more  difficult.  There  are  several  cases  of  two  sep- 
arate Committees  of  Shop  Stewards — one  representing  the  skilled 
and  the  other  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  men — in  the  same  works. 
In  other  establishments,  however,  skilled  and  unskilled  men  vote 
for  the   same   committee   and    act   together  as   members.      This 

*  The  appointment  by  the  men  of  a  separate  rate  fixer,  whose  business 
it  would  be  to  arrange  piece  prices  with  the  firm's  rate  fixer,  is  a  sug- 
gested development  towards  which  a  movement  is  being  made  in  one  or 
two  firms.  In  one  large  establishment,  such  a  duplication  is  suggested  by 
one  of  the  firm's  rate  fixers  as  a  very  desirable  arrangement. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        381 

would  appear  to  be  the  most  desirable  arrangement.  The  case, 
however,  in  which  a  minority  of  unskilled  men  in  each  depart- 
ment is  represented  on  a  Works  Committee  by  a  skilled  unionist 
is  not  exactly  on  a  par  with  that  in  which  a  minority  belonging 
to  an  unskilled  Union  is  so  represented.  Apart  from  the  fact 
that  unskilled  men  are  more  likely  to  be  distributed  through  all 
the  departments,  so  that  though  in  a  minority  they  form  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  total  number  of  employees,  there  is 
the  further  consideration  that  the  similarity  of  interest  and  the 
community  of  feeling  are  not  so  pronounced.  In  many  establish- 
ments the  difficulty  has  apparently  been  surmounted :  but  in  a 
number  of  others  it  is  still  a  serious  problem.  The  problem 
would  appear  to  be  one  which  cannot  be  settled  by  the  men  in 
each  establishment — though  they  may  provide  valuable  sugges- 
tions—and it  must  probably  be  left  for  the  Trade  Unions  con- 
cerned to  come  to  some  agreement  on  the  matter.  For  this 
reason  a  certain  number  of  workpeople,  both  skilled  and  un- 
skilled, consider  that  in  cases  where  the  difficulty  is  acute  the 
policy  of  two  committees  is  the  best  present  working  arrange- 
ment. The  defects  of  such  a  system  are  perhaps  too  obvious  to 
require  particular  mention.  It  may,  however,  be  noted  that  the 
system  obstructs  very  considerably  that  joint  consideration  of 
common  interests  and  desires,  to  find  expression  for  which  is 
one  of  the  main  purposes  of  a  Works  Committee.  It  tends  in- 
stead to  concentrate  the  attention  of  each  committee  upon  points 
of  divergence  of   interest. 

The  coming  together  into  one  committee  of  shop  stewards 
responsible  to  different  Trade  Unions  raises  a  number  of  ques- 
tions. It  is  true  that  the  rules  by  which  Unions  define  the  func- 
tions of  their  shop  stewards  are  fairly  uniform,  and  so  long  as  a 
Works  Committee  respects  the  rules  of  the  different  Unions 
there  is  little  fear  of  overlapping  or  confusion  in  functions.  The 
general  rule  which  determines  the  functions  of  a  Works  Com- 
mittee in  relation  to  Trade  Union  organization  has  already  been 
mentioned.  As  is  said  in  the  case  of  one  Committee,  "The  Com- 
mittee regard  questions  of  general  application,  relating  to  rates 
of  wages,  hours  of  work  or  otherwise,  which  affect  'district  con- 
ditions,' as  beyond  their  jurisdiction.  There  is  no  formal  rule  to 
this  effect ;  but  this  limitation  of  the  Committee's  power  is  well 
understood,  and  no  difficulties  have  arisen." 

It  is  thus  the  rule  that  general  questions  of  district  or  national 


382  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

conditions  are  left  to  the  Trade  Unions,  while  the  Works  Com- 
mittee deals  with  either  the  detailed  application  of  these  general 
rules  within  the  works  or  w-ith  questions  entirely  peculiar  to  the 
works.  On  the  whole,  the  infonnation  which  is  available  would 
suggest  that  the  division  of  jurisdiction  is  well  understood  and 
closely  followed.     There  are,  however,  certain  difficulties. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  evidence  of  uncertainty  as  to 
whether  or  not  a  Works  Committee  should  undertake  certain 
functions ;  matters  may  sometimes  seem  from  one  point  of  view 
to  be  "branch"  or  "district"  business,  and  from  another  to  be 
"works"  business.  A  tool-room  bonus,  for  instance,  may  be  ar- 
ranged in  a  works  between  a  committee  and  the  works  man- 
ager, and  they  may  agree  in  regarding  it  as  a  works  affair,  while 
the  local  branch  (or  district  committee)  of  the  Union  concerned 
may  consider  that  it  is  a  question  of  wages  which  demands  their 
sanction.  In  view  of  the  variety  and  complexitj'  of  bonus 
schemes  which  have  been  instituted  in  munitions  factories,  and 
of  the  possible  reactions  of  these  upon  standard  rates,  there 
would  appear  to  be  some  need  for  careful  definition  of  a  Works 
Committee's  functions  in  this  field. 

There  is  some  evidence  also  of  actual  conflict  of  authority. 
Such  cases,  however,  would  appear  to  have  been  given  an  alto- 
gether disproportionate  prominence  in  public  discussion,  to  the 
detriment  of  those  whose  main  desire  is  to  create  a  constitu- 
tional machinery  suited  to  new  and  rapidly  changing  conditions. 
In  a  few  instances,  however,  a  Works  Committee  would  appear 
to  have  been  in  doubt  as  to  whether  it  was  an  independent  organ- 
ization or  one  subject  to  Trade  Union  control.  Thus,  a  Works 
Committee  wholly  composed  of  Trade  Union  stewards  has  made 
a  demand  for  an  advance  in  wages  to  which,  under  an  alternative 
agreement  made  by  the  Trade  Unions,  the  workmen  represented 
by  it  had  no  claim.  In  one  or  two  cases  representations  have 
been  made  to  Government  Departments  for  advances  in  wages 
and  improvements  in  other  working  conditions  in  individual 
works,  independently  of  district  or  national  machinery,  though 
the  works  in  question  were  known  to  recognize  district  standards. 

It  would  appear  that  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  real  position 
and  powers  of  a  Works  Committee  in  relation  to  the  Trade 
Unions  is,  at  least  in  the  engineering  industry,  to  some  extent 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  various  members  of  a  committee  may  be 
responsible  to  many  different  Unions.     Though,   therefore,   the 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        383 

Works  Committee  may  aspire  to  be  a  unit  of  government,  this  is 
rendered  difficult  in  view  of  the  different  and  possibly  conflicting 
authorities  from  which  the  members  obtain  their  status.  One 
suggested  scheme  proposes  to  overcome  this  particular  difficulty 
so  far  at  least  as  the  Unions  of  skilled  men  are  concerned.  It 
would  bring  the  committees  in  the  various  establishments  under 
the  district  Engineering  Trades  Joint  Committee,  and  confine 
membership  of  any  committee  to  those  organized  in  the  Trade 
Union  affiliated  to  the  district  committee.  This  question  of  the 
relationship  of  works  to  district  committees  is  interesting  also  in 
view  of  the  proposals  contained  in  the  Whitley  Report.  That 
Report  advocates  Joint  National  and  District  Councils  and  Works 
Committees;  and  the  problem  of  the  relations  of  the  District 
Council  and  the  Works  Committee  and  their  relative  functions 
is  one  which  will  need  to  be  investigated  when  measures  are 
being  adopted  to  institute   such  Councils. 

The  need  for  this  consideration  of  relationship  between 
Works  Committees  and  the  district  Trade  Union  organization 
would  appear  to  be  more  necessary  in  certain  industries  than  in 
others.  It  would  appear,  for  instance,  that  in  the  iron  and  steel 
industry  the  fact  that  members  in  one  works  commonly  form  a 
branch  of  their  Union,  and  that  the  secretaries  of  branches  are 
usually — it  may  be  in  virtue  of  the  office  they  hold — members  of 
the  Works  Committee,  makes  the  problem  of  inter-relations  less 
difficult,  at  least  for  those  Unions  which  are  organized  on  the 
basis  of  works. 

A  point  of  procedure  may  be  noticed.  It  is  sometimes  the 
case  that  a  Trade  Union  official  accompanies  the  representatives 
of  the  Works  Committee  in  an  interview  with  the  management; 
or,  again,  a  Trade  Union  official  may  attend  the  deliberations  of 
a  Joint  Committee  if  the  men  so  desire.  ^  But  this  apparently  is 
exceptional ;  and,  as  a  rule,  a  Works  Committee  acts  by  itself, 
and  refers  to  Trade  Union  officials  questions  which  are  too  large 
or  too  difficult  to  be  settled  in  the  works.  It  should,  however, 
be  noted  that  many  trade  unionists  are  of  the  opinion  that  the 
right  of  the  Trade  Union  officials  to  attend  committee  meetings 
(or  to  inspect  the  minutes  of  a  committee)  is  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  the  satisfactory  solution  of  the  question  of  inter-rela- 
tions. 

*  It  may  also  be  noted  that  officials  of  the  various  Unions  were  mem- 
bers of  the  workmen's  side  of  the  Joint  Committee  formed  in  connection 
with  a  profit-sharing  scheme  instituted  before  the  war  by  a  well-known 
shipbuilding  firm   in  a   northern   town. 


384  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Two  other  questions  which  are  involved  in  this  problem  of 
the  inter-relations  of  Works  Committees  and  Trade  Unions  call 
for  notice. 

The  first  relates  to  the  victimization  of  men  who  show  them- 
selves active  as  shop  stewards  or  as  members  of  a  Works  Com- 
mittee. It  is  impossible  to  estimate  to  what  extent  such  victim- 
ization actually  occurs,  and  this  is  partly  due  to  the  difficulty  of 
defining  what  victimization  is.  Workmen  complain  not  only  of 
victimization,  but  also  of  the  difificulty  of  bringing  the  charge 
home  even  when  (they  state)  they  have  no  doubt  about  the  facts. 
For  this  reason  many  of  them  hold  the  view  that,  unless  the 
Works  Committee  is  properly  related  to  and  protected  by  Trade 
Unions,  it  cannot  hope — in  certain  establishments  at  least — to  dis- 
cuss questions  before  the  management  with  that  sense  of  freedom 
which  is  essential  to  the  success  of  joint  deliberations.  In  this 
connection  it  may  be  noted  that  one  of  two  reasons  given  for  the 
short  terms  of  office  of  the  shop  stewards  and  secretaries  of 
committees  in  one  industry  (one  and  three  months  respectively) 
was  the  fear  of  victimization.  The  other  reason — in  this  the 
Works  Committee  appears  to  revert  to  the  early  forms  of  con- 
ducting the  business  of  Trade  Union  branches — was  stated  to  be 
the  desire  that  everyone  should  take  his  share  of  ofifice. 

The  other  question  relates  to  the  allegations  made  by  certain 
Trade  Unionists  that  certain  employers — more  particularly  in 
one  or  two  industries — are  fostering  the  growth  of  Works  Com- 
mittees in  order  to  destroy  Trade  Union  influence  in  their  works. 
The  danger,  it  is  said,  from  the  point  of  view  of  Trade  Unionism 
is  exactly  the  same  as  that  which  is  believed  to  result  from  profit- 
sharing,  vie,  that  the  workman  is  detached  from  his  fellows  and 
his  power  to  obtain  certain  standard  conditions  is  consequently 
weakened.  The  further  charge  has  been  made,  in  regard  to  one 
or  two  industries,  that  the  employers  were  proposing,  in  the 
name  of  the  Whitley  Report,  to  form  Works  Committees  with- 
out connection  with  the  Unions,  and  from  these  committees  to 
build  up  District  and  National  Councils  representative  of  em- 
ployers and  employed.  It  must,  however,  be  emphasized  that 
any  such  action  is  directly  opposed  to  the  proposals  of  the  Whit- 
ley Report.  These  proposals  look  to  the  control  of  Works  Com- 
mittees by  National  or  District  Councils  which,  on  the  work- 
people's side,  would  be  representative  of  Trade  Unions  only; 
and,  in  order  that  Works  Committees  should  be  formed  on  lines 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  385 

satisfactory  to  the  national  organizations,  the  Report  proposes 
that  the  formation  of  Works  Committees  should,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, follow,  and  not  precede,  that  of  the  National  and  District 
Councils.  A  logical  application  of  this  order  of  procedure  may 
be  impossible,  but  wherever  individual  employers  find  it  desirable 
to  form  Works  Committees  before  National  or  District  Councils 
are  instituted,  the  idea  of  the  Whitley  Report  may  be  so  far 
followed  that  such  proposals  should  be  brought  before  the  Trade 
Unions  concerned,  and  they  should  be  asked  to  share  in  the 
formation  of  the  Works  Committee. 

General   Considerations 

The  applicability  of  Works  Committees  to  different  industries 
is  a  matter  of  importance.  During  the  war  the  discussion  of 
them  has  been  associated  most  generally  with  the  engineering 
industry,  and  it  is  probably  in  that  industry  that,  for  reasons  al- 
ready stated,  their  development  during  the  war  has  been  most 
rapid.  This  development,  however,  has  by  no  means  been  con- 
fined to  engineering ;  and  in  certain  other  industries,  for  example, 
iron  and  steel  works,  there  has  been  a  marked  increase.  If  we 
consider  pre-war  experiences,  and  include  not  only  general  com- 
mittees formed  for  special  purposes,  but  also  sectional  commit- 
tees, it  would  appear  that  an  industry  in  which  committees  had 
not  been  in  existence  at  some  time  or  other  would  prove  the  ex- 
ception rather  than  the  rule.  In  this  connection  one  may  note 
that  in  establishments  in  the  distributive  trades  several  commit- 
tees have  been  formed  to  help  in  the  running  of  profit-sharing 
schemes.  It  may  also  be  noted  that  during  the  war  one  very 
large  establishment  has  seen  the  development  not  only  of  sep- 
arate Committees  of  Shop  Stewards,  representing  the  skilled 
and  unskilled  sections  of  engineering  respectively,  but  of  at  least 
two  other  committees  constituted  on  more  or  less  similar  lines. 
One  of  these  is  composed  of  shop  stewards  from  the  building 
trades,  and  the  other  of  delegates  from  the  clerks  engaged  in 
the  various  departments.  The  works  in  question  is  exceptional 
not  only  in  size  but  in  certain  other  respects,  so  that  it  cannot 
very  well  be  taken  as  an  example.  The  specific  representation 
of  the  building  trades  may,  however,  be  put  alongside,  the  pre- 
viously mentioned  examples  of  informal  committees  constituted 
on  big  works  of  building  construction.     It  may  also  be  argued 


386  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

that  if  a  committee  is  desirable  in  a  distributive  trading  establish- 
ment for  the  administration  of  a  bonus  scheme,  the  same  form  of 
organization  may  be  useful  for  other  general  purposes.  It  may 
further  be  argued — and  it  is  so  argued  by  some — that  a  Works 
Committee  is  desirable  in  any  establishment  in  which  more  than 
a  certain  number  of  people  are  employed.  Whether  the  organ- 
ization is  either  necessary  or  desirable  in  every  or  nearly  every 
kind  of  establishment  is  a  question  which  the  future  must  solve. 
Here  it  may  be  noted  that  at  present  considerations  almost 
diametrically  opposite  to  one  another  appear  to  determine  the 
general  absence  of  committees  from  different  groups  of  indus- 
tries ;  in  some  this  would  appear  to  be  due  to  the  absence  or  the 
weakness  of  Trade  Union  organization,  while  in  others  the 
strength  of  Trade  Union  organization  makes  Works  Committees 
unnecessary  for  the  purposes  which  call  them  into  existence  in 
a  number  of  industries. 

The  cotton  industry  is  a  case  in  point.  Here  the  contiguity 
of  the  mills,  and  the  fact  that  conditions  are  so  uniform  that 
district  piece-lists  are  practicable,  ensure  that  the  strong  district 
organization  (with  its  permanent  secretary  on  both  sides  and  its 
district  committee  on  both  sides)  is  adequate  to  those  needs 
which  in  engineering,  for  instance,  have  produced  the  demand 
for  a  works  organization.  The  same  problem  of  wages  has  ne- 
cessitated in  other  industries,  e.g.,  certain  of  those  coming  under 
the  Trade  Boards  Acts,  direct  State-enforcement  of  piece-rates. 
Though  for  this  purpose  a  Works  Committee  may  be  unneces- 
sary or  undesirable  in  both  groups  of  industries,  it  may  be  that 
other  purposes  will  produce  a  similar  form  of  organization.  It 
would  appear  that  most  of  the  needs  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  in  this  report  are  not  quite  peculiar  to  any  one  type  of 
industrial  establishment,  but  more  or  less  common  to  all.  Ques- 
tions of  foremanship  may  be  given  as  one  instance.  Welfare  is 
another ;  very  many  matters  can  be  brought  under  its  scope,  and 
it  seems  likely  that  in  future  Works  Committees  will  come  to 
play  a  greater  part  in  their  administration.  ^ 

It  may  be  suggested  that  the  size  of  the  works  concerned  is  a 
factor  of  importance  in  any  discussion  of  the  range  of  applica- 
tion of  a  system  of  Works  Committees.     It  is  sometimes  urged 

>  Since  the  above  paragraph  was  written  a  movement  to  bring  the 
union  organization  more  closely  into  relationship  with  the  conditions  in 
individual  cotton  mills  has  produced  a  scheme  in  the  Oldham  district.  The 
proposal  is  to  make  shop  (or  mill)  clubs  an  integral  part  of  the  district 
union,  to  deal  with  shop  grievances,  &c. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  387 

that  Works  Committees  are  only  valuable  in  large  works,  in 
which  the  workmen  number  3,000  or  upwards.  It  is  certainly 
true  that  the  larger  the  works,  the  greater  the  help  which  a 
Works  Committee  can  give  in  putting  the  higher  ranks  of  the 
management  in  touch  with  the  feelings  and  needs  of  the  men. 
In  a  small  works  the  manager  will  probably  be  able  to  familiarize 
himself  with  every  detail  of  the  work,  and  he  will  be  brought 
into  contact  with  nearly  every  ^workman.  He  may  feel  that  he  is 
already  in  close  touch  with  the  men,  and  that  a  Works  Commit- 
tee cannot  make  the  touch  closer.  Even  here,  however,  a  Works 
Committee  is  likely  to  help.  It  will  enable  the  management  to 
discuss  matters  not  with  isolated  individuals,  but  with  the  ac- 
credited representatives  of  the  whole  body  of  the  men,  and  it 
may  help  to  bring  to  light  difficulties,  needs,  feelings  and  defects 
which  might  otherwise  have  remained  concealed.  A  Works 
Committee  may  thus  serve  not  to  supplant,  but  to  supplement, 
the  advantages  of  personal  touch,  even  in  small  establishments ; 
while  in  large  establishments,  where  personal  contact  is  not  so 
easy,  the  help  which  it  may  give  is  obvious.  In  any  case  it  should 
be  remarked  that  committees  are  to  be  found  in  works  of  very 
different  sizes.  One  committee  is  concerned  with  workers  in  a 
single  establishment  to  the  number  of  10,000  men ;  many  are  to 
be  found  in  works  in  which  the  workmen  number  about  3,000;  a 
number  exist  in  works  employing  about  100  workmen. 

To  this  may  be  added  the  expression  of  opinion  of  the  owner 
and  manager  of  a  small  printing  office  where  the  compositor's 
chapel  (there  is  only  the  one  chapel  in  the  office)  has  at  present 
only  ten  members.  He  is  in  direct  contact  with  each  of  the  men; 
but  he  has  found  it  advantageous  in  the  past  to  have  the  father 
of  the  chapel  and  one  or  two  of  the  other  compositors  together 
"for  a  talk  over  tea."  This,  it  may  be  said,  is  done  in  many  small 
businesses.  It  may,  however,  be  worth  while  to  consider  the  ad- 
visability of  putting  such  discussion  on  a  regular  footing  even  in 
small  businesses.  In  the  instance  mentioned  the  employer  pro- 
poses to  make  a  trial  of  regular  discussions.  Probably  the  only 
generalization  one  can  safely  make  about  the  need  for  Works 
Committees  in  relation  to  the  size  of  establishments  is  that  the 
need  increases  with  the  size. 

There  remain  two  points  of  importance.  One  is  the  ques- 
tion of  the  practical  success  of  Works  Committees ;  the  other 
the  importance  from  that  point  of  view  of  the  human  factor. 


388  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

As  regards  the  first  question,  evidence  is  forthcoming  from 
all  parts  of  the  country — the  Clyde,  the  Tyne,  the  Midlands,  the 
Bristol,  Manchester,  Yorkshire,  and  London  districts.  As  re- 
gards the  second,  this  much  is  clear:  success  depends  to  a  great 
extent  on  the  existence  of  a  spirit  of  counsel  and  understanding 
on  both  sides.  If  "the  management  door  stands  open"  to  all 
legitimate  grievances,  and  if  the  men  are  ready  to  present  their 
grievances  and  to  take  into  consideration  the  difficulties  of  the 
management,  the  fundamental  conditions  are  present.  Much 
will  always  depend  on  the  personalities  concerned.  Every  human 
institution  requires  for  its  success  the  guidance  of  personalities. 
A  Works  Committee  requires  for  its  chairman  or  secretar}- — or, 
at  any  rate,  one  may  say,  ideally  requires  for  its  chairman  or 
secretary— a  man  of  personality,  trusted  by  his  fellow-workmen, 
respected  by  the  management,  with  the  spirit  of  service,  and 
ready,  in  that  spirit,  to  give  his  services  freely  in  the  cause  of 
his  committee.  It  requires  no  less  a  sympathetic  and  capable 
management,  ready  to  listen,  ready  to  weigh  carefully,  ready  to 
take  pains  in  discussion,  and  prepared  to  persuade  and  to  be  per- 
suaded. It  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  the  times  that 
on  both  sides  such  men  have  been  found,  and  that,  both  among 
the  management  and  the  men,  personalities  have  emerged  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  institution. 

Works  Committees  mean  discussion;  discussion  takes  time; 
and  from  this  point  of  view  it  is  sometimes  argued  that  a  Works 
Committee  may  tend  to  slow  down  the  pace  of  industry;  and, 
again,  that  it  may  be  difficult  to  convince  a  committee  of  the 
value  and  the  feasibility  of  a  new  idea  or  process,  so  that  the 
way  of  innovation  may  be  somewhat  impeded.  These,  however, 
are  theoretical  objections.  In  practice  Works  Committees— the 
evidence  would  suggest— have  improved  timekeeping  and  in- 
creased output,  and  in  that  way  they  have  accelerated  rather 
than  impeded  the  pace  of  industry.  In  practice,  again,  they  have 
been  the  opposite  of  conservative,  and  instead  of  checking 
change  they  have  themselves  suggested  change.  And  even  if 
they  made  the  pace  slower,  or  change  more  difficult,  they  have 
advantages  that  would  compensate,  and  more  than  compensate, 
for  these  defects.  They  make  for  better  relations  and  greater 
harmony,  and  these  are  the  things  that  matter  most  to  industry. 
More  time  is  gained  by  the  absence  of  disputes  than  is  lost  by 
the  presence  of  discussion;  more  improvements  can  be  introduced 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        389 

in  an  atmosphere  of  harmony  than  can  possibly  be  introduced  in 
an  atmosphere  of  suspicion. 

That  Works  Committees  have,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
tended  to  introduce  greater  harmony,  and,  through  it,  greater 
efficiency,  is  proved  by  the  evidence  of  those  concerned  in  their 
working.  It  is  not  denied  that  in  some  cases  (though  these  are 
very  few)  Works  Committees  have  failed.  A  few  cases  of  such 
failure  have  been  noted  in  committees  instituted  during  the  war 
for  general  purposes.  In  one  of  these  the  failure  was  perhaps 
due  mainly  to  defects  of  machinery,  and  it  is  stated  that  the 
Works  Committee  may  be  resuscitated ;  in  another  the  failure 
was  due  to  deep-seated  causes,  which  made  success  impossible, 
and  the  failure  reflects  no  discredit  on  the  institution.  In  almost 
every  case,  however,  the  testimony  is  to  the  opposite  effect. 
Sometimes  introduced  with  difficulty  and  amid  suspicion,  com- 
mittees have  established  themselves  and  done  service  which  is 
acknowledged  even  by  their  original  opponents.  By  providing  a 
channel  for  the  ventilation  of  grievances  at  an  early  stage,  and 
before  they  become  acute,  they  have  prevented  disputes  and 
strikes,  and  they  have  improved  timekeeping  and  increased  out- 
put. Nor  is  this  all.  The  functions  of  Works  Committees  are 
not  merely  concerned  with  bringing  grievances  before  the  man- 
agement, but  also  with  a  preliminary  enquiry  into  grievances,  in 
order  to  decide  whether  they  are  well-grounded  and  serious 
enough  to  be  brought  before  the  management.  The  work  which 
they  do  in  this  preliminary  stage  is  not  the  least  valuable  part  of 
their  work,  and,  far  from  hampering  the  management,  it  ob- 
viously does  the  reverse  and  reheves  the  management  of 
difficulties  and  grievances  it  would  otherwise  have  to  face. 
Grievances  are  either  nipped  in  the  bud  by  being  shown,  upon 
discussion  in  committee,  to  be  unfounded,  or  they  are  settled  in 
discussion  between  the  secretary  of  the  committee  and  the  fore- 
man or  head  of  the  department,  and  in  either  case  they  never 
come  to  the  main  management.  When  grievances  cannot  be  set- 
tled in  this  way— since,  for  example,  they  may  involve  the  head 
of  a  department  directly — there  remains  the  possibility  of  access 
to  the  main  management.  The  necessity  for  this  has  been  em- 
phasized by  both  representative  employers  and  representative 
workmen;  and  upon  it,  so  far  as  can  be  judged,  depends  not 
only  the  removal  of  grievances,  but  (what  is  still  more  im- 
portant) that  really  suggestive  and  constructive  work  which  the 


390  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

signatories  to  the  Whitley  Report  had  in  mind  in  recommending 
that  workpeople  should  be  given  a  larger  voice  in  determining 
industrial  conditions. 

In  more  than  one  works  the  summary  of  opinion  on  a  Works 
Committee — and  that  not  on  one  side  only,  but  on  both — has 
been  expressed  in  the  phrase,  "This  is  the  best  thing  that  has 
ever  happened  in  the  shop."  Such  a  summary  could  not  be  given 
if  experience  had  not  proved  that  a  Works  Committee  was  more 
than  a  piece  of  machinery  and  something  different  from  the  old 
methods  of  industrial  conciliation.  It  means  that  a  Works  Com- 
mittee is  felt  to  be  something  vital  and  something  new — some- 
thing that  enlists  the  .workers  in  real  participation,  and  something 
that  offers  fresh  promise  for  the  future. 


A  PLAN  FOR  CO-OPERATIVE  MANAGEMENT' 

Industrial  Relations  Becoming  Critical 

Today  we  all  see  clearly  that  the  war  between  capital  and 
labor,  or  between  the  employing  class  and  their  employees,  is 
getting  to  a  stage  or  condition  which  seriously  endangers  the 
existing  industrial  and  social  structures  in  most  of  the  civilized 
nations,  and  the  political  structures  in  those  nations  which  have 
had  no  experience  in  the  practice  of  liberty. 

After  the  firm  establishment  of  a  limited  League  of  Nations 
with  plenty  of  force  at  command,  the  thing  most  to  be  desired 
by  the  free  peoples,  and  by  those  who  are  hoping  to  become  free, 
is  a  just  settlement  of  the  industrial  strife.  I  propose,  therefore, 
to  put  before  you  in  as  concise  form  as  I  can  the  changes  which 
must  be  brought  about  in  the  present  policies  and  procedures  of 
the  two  parties  to  this  strife  before  any  just  and  durable  peace 
settlement  can  be  expected.  Some  of  these  changes  have  already 
been  brought  about  in  an  experimental  and  scattered  way.  They 
greatly  need  to  be  universally  adopted. 

On  the  Part  of  Employers 

I.  Abandonment  of  every  form  of  despotic  or  autocratic 
government  in  factories,  mines,  transportation  service,  and  all 
other  industries  which  deal  with  the  necessaries  of  modern  life. 

*  By  Charles  W.  Eliot.     Boston  Transcript.     March   is,   ipiQ- 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  391 

2.  Universal  adoption  of  cooperative  management  and  dis- 
cipline throughout  the  works  or  plant,  the  employer  and  the 
workman  having  equal  representation  in  managing  committees. 

3.  Adoption  bj'  all  corporations,  partnerships  and  individual 
owners  of  every  means  of  promoting  the  health  and  vigor  of 
employees  and  their  families,  including  the  provision  of  free 
medical  and  nursing  service,  good  housing,  and  all  feasible  pro- 
tection against  accident,  sickness,  alcoholism,  and  vice,  not  as  a 
matter  of  charity  but  as  a  sound  business  method.  Prolonged 
education  for  adults  who  are  already  earning  their  livelihood 
should  be  included  among  these  means. 

4.  Careful  revision  in  all  large  services — so  large  as  to  pre- 
clude intimate  relations  between  the  employer  and  the  employed 
— of  the  means  of  dealing  promptly  and  justly  with  complaints 
of  employees,  whether  individuals  or  groups.  In  complaint  cases 
foremen  may  be  witnesses,   but  never  judges. 

5.  Universal  use  in  large  services  of  well-trained  employ- 
ment managers  for  dealing  with  the  engagement,  distribution, 
shifting,  promotion  and  dismissal  of  employees. 

6.  General  adoption  of  a  genuine  partnership  system  between 
the  capital  and  the  labor  engaged  in  any  given  works  or  plant, 
whereby  the  returns  to  capital  and  labor  alike  after  the  wages 
are  paid  shall  vary  with  the  profits  of  the  establishment,  the  per- 
centage of  the  profits  going  to  payroll  being  always  much  larger 
than  that  going  to  shareholders  or  owners  and  payroll  never  to 
be  called  on  to  make  good  losses.  As  in  ordinary  partnerships 
the  annual  or  semi-annual  accounts  should  be  open  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  all  persons  directly  interested.  As  a  means  of  securing 
to  employees  full  knowledge  of  the  partnership  accounts  they 
should  always  be  represented  in  the  directorate. 

7.  Constant  effort  on  the  part  of  managers  to  diminish 
monotony  and  increase  variety  in  the  occupation,  from  day  to 
day  and  year  to  year,  of  every  intelligent  and  ambitious  em- 
ployee. There  is  no  uniform  mode  of  putting  this  policy  into 
effect  in  all  the  various  industries;  but  there  are  two  methods 
of  wide  applicability.  The  first  of  these  is  the  policy  of  shifting 
employees  from  one  task  to  another  in  the  long  series  of  tasks 
involved  in  the  production  of  the  establishment;  the  second  is 
the  policy  of  oft'ering  instruction  at  cost  out  of  hours  to  aspiring 
employees.    This  policy  requires  on  the  part  of  those  who  apply 


392  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

it  acquaintances  with  individuals,  skill  in  selection,  and  persever- 
ing good  will. 

8.  Universal  acceptance  of  collective  bargaining  through 
elected  representatives  of  each  side. 

On  the  Part  of  Employees 

1.  Abandonment  of  the  doctrine  of  limited  output;  because 
this  doctrine  demoralizes  every  person  who  puts  it  into  practice 
by  never  doing  his  best. 

2.  Abandonment  of  the  idea  that  it  is  desirable  for  workers 
of  any  sort  to  work  as  few  hours  in  a  day  as  possible  and  with- 
out zeal  or  interest  during  those  few. 

3.  Absolute  rejection  of  the  notion  that  leisure  rather  than 
steady  work  should  be  the  main  object  of  life.  On  this  point 
three  principles  may  be  said  to  be  established  by  the  history  01 
civilization  itself,  first,  that  a  leisure  class  in  any  community  is 
apt  to  become  a  useless  or  even  dangerous  class ;  secondly,  that 
civilization  advances  among  different  races  in  proportion  to  the 
prevalance  among  the  masses  of  the  love  of  liberty  under  law, 
and  of  the  habit  of  steady  work  as  distinguished  from  the  inter- 
mittent work  of  the  hunter  or  the  nomad;  and,  thirdly,  that  the 
higher  or  most  satisfactory  employments  or  occupations  permit 
and  encourage  every  man  to  work  to  the  limit  of  his  strength 
and  health  out  of  love  for  the  work  itself,  or  his  own  satisfac- 
tion in  it.  This  is  true  of  all  the  learned  and  scientific  profes- 
sions and  of  the  higher  walks  of  business  and  politics.  In  this 
respect  the  lower  occupations  need  to  be  assimilated  as  much  as 
possible  to  the  higher. 

4.  The  first  question  for  any  young  man  to  ask  when  he  is 
choosing  an  occupation  is,  is  there  in  the  occupation  contem- 
plated variety,  interest,  and  instructiveness  as  life  goes  on,  not 
how  few  hours  a  week  can  he  earn  his  livelihood  in  it.  In  other 
words,  it  is  a  great  object  in  life  to  have  an  occupation  which 
yields  in  itself  continuous  satisfaction  and  contentment,  and  at 
the  same  time  is  not  subject  to  sudden  interruption  or  ceasing 
at  the  will  of  other  people.  Of  course  the  mental  workers, 
whose  success  depends  chiefly  upon  their  own  capacity  and  in- 
dustry, have  great  advantages  in  this  respect  over  handworkers 
who  tend  machinery.  On  the  other  hand,  they  have  but  slight 
advantage  over  diligent  workers  in  such  occupations  as  farming. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  393 

carpentry,  blacksmithing  and  printing,  for  example,  in  which 
there  is  large  variety,  and  personal  knowledge  and  skill  count 
for  much. 

5.  Abandonment  of  two  conceptions  which  underlie  the  use 
of  violence  or  force  for  winning  the  victory  in  contests  between 
employers  and  employed.  The  first  is  the  conception  that  capital 
is  the  natural  enemy  of  labor,  and  the  second,  the  conception 
that  unorganized  laborers  are  traitors  to  their  class.  These  con- 
ceptions belong  to  an  industrial  era  which  is  really  passed.  They 
are  miserable  survivals  of  much  earlier  times  when  hours  of 
labor  in  factory  industries  and  in  farming  were  unwholesomely 
long,  wages  deplorably  low,  and  the  mass  of  the  people  had  little 
control  over  legislation  or  the  manners  and  custom  of  the  ruling 
classes. 

6.  Abandonment  of  all  violence  toward  property  or  persons 
in  the  prosecution  of  industrial  disputes.  It  is  a  consideration 
strongly  in  favor  of  this  abandonment  that  a  strike  covering  the 
whole  territory  of  the  nation  or  a  large  part  thereof  has  lately 
become  possible,  because  of  recent  improvements  in  means  of 
communication.  Such  a  strike,  or  even  a  threat  of  it,  is  capable 
of  inflicting  much  suffering  on  millions  of  non-combatants. 

By  Both  Parties  of  the  Industrial  Strife 

1.  Willing  adoption  by  both  parties  of  the  methods  of  con- 
ciliation, arbitration,  and  ultimate  decision  by  a  National  Gov- 
ernment Board  as  sufficient  means  of  bringing  about  just  and 
progressive  settlements  of  all  disputes  between  capital  and  labor. 
The  war  has  demonstrated  within  the  last  two  years  the  feasibil- 
ity of  adjusting  disputes  between  employers  and  employed  by 
these  means.  To  be  sure  it  has  been  under  abnormal  conditions 
that  these  means  have  proved  to  be  temporarily  sufficient;  so 
that  the  immediate  problem  before  the  country  is  how  to  dem- 
onstrate that  these  means  are  sufficient  under  normal  conditions, 
and  that  they  are  the  only  ones  which  a  free  and  law  abiding 
people  should  hereafter  use. 

2.  Recognition  by  both  parties  that  a  new  and  formidable 
danger  threatens  civilization,  and  that  all  good  citizens  of  the 
Republic  should  unite  to  suppress  anarchy  and  violent  Socialism 
and  to  secure  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  "life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 


394  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

3.  General  acceptance  of  the  view  that  American  hberties 
are  to  be  preserved  just  as  they  have  been  won.  They  have  been 
slowly  achieved  by  generations  of  sturdy,  hard-working  people 
who  value  personal  independence,  industry,  thrift,  truthfulness 
in  thought  and  act,  respect  for  law,  family  life  and  home,  and 
were  always  ready  to  fight  in  defense  of  these  things. 

4.  Acceptances  of  the  truth  that  the  democracy  which  is  to 
be  made  safe  in  the  world  does  not  mean  equality  of  possessions 
or  powers,  or  a  dead  level  of  homogeneous  and  monotonous  so- 
ciety, but  on  the  contrary  the  free  cultivation  of  infinitely  diver- 
sified human  gifts  and  capacities,  and  liberty  for  each  individual 
to  do  his  best  for  the  common  good. 


SOME  ELEMENTS  IN   CO-OPERATION^ 

I  have  always  believed  in  co-operation  between  the  employer 
and  the  employee  but  I  was  once  inclined  to  think  that  probably 
the  question  of  wages  could  only  be  settled  solely  and  entirely 
along  the  line  of  bargaining,  like  that  of  the  buyer  and  the 
seller.  The  more  I  have  studied  the  question  the  more  I  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  co-operation  in  the  fixing  of  wages  is  not 
only  possible  but  is  the  proper  thing. 

The  laborer,  on  his  part,  must  realize  that  there  is  not  an  un- 
limited fund  upon  which  he  can  draw  but  that  it  is  limited  by 
what  may  be  called  the  gross  profits  of  the  particular  under- 
taking or  the  industry  in  which  he  is  engaged. 

The  employer,  on  his  side,  must  realize  that  there  are  certain 
duties  he  owes  to  his  employees  and  also  to  the  community.  It 
is  desirable  from  all  points  of  view  that  the  general  mass  of  the 
people  in  our  country,  and  in  fact  in  any  country,  should  live 
on  as  high  a  standard  as  is  possible.  The  day  of  the  sweatshop, 
if  not  already  gone,  is  rapidly  going.  I  believe  that  with  the 
proper  study  of  the  problem  in  each  shop,  or  in  each  industry, 
by  the  employers  and  the  employees  the  wage  question  can  be 
settled  amicably,  allowing  the  employee  a  wage  sufficient  to 
maintain  him  at  the  best  standard  of  comfort  that  the  country 
will  aflford,  and  at  the  same  time  giving  the  employer  a  proper 
return  upon  his  investment   a  proper  return  to  guard  him  against 

>  By  J.  Parke  Channing.  From  an  address  before  the  Association  of 
Superintendents   of  the   Bush  Terminal,  New  York.      March   26,    19 19. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        395 

the  risks  of  the  business,  and  a  proper  amount  of  money  to  allow 
for  depreciation  for  the  accumulation  of  a  fund  for  replacement, 
for  the  building  of  additions  to  his  plant,  or  for  enlarging  the 
scope  of  his  operations.  To  accompHsh  this  result  in  its  broadest 
sense  in  any  industry  means  the  complete  organization  of  the 
employers  on  one  side  and  the  employees  upon  the  other  side. 
It  will  not  do  to  have  a  large  number  of  the  manufacturers  out 
any  more  than  it  will  do  to  have  any  large  number  of  the  work- 
men act  as  free-lances.  Let  us  take  for  example  an  industry  of 
which  I  know  something,  (though  it  is  not  my  specialty),  and 
that  is  coal  mining.  We  have  enormous  coal  deposits  in  the 
United  States  and  yet  they  are  being  most  wastefully  wrought 
because  of  improper  control  and  improper  co-operation.  The 
owner  of  a  tract  of  coal-land  may  sink  a  shaft  upon  his  prop- 
erty, hire  inefficient  men,  pay  them  low  wages,  take  out  half  of 
his  coal,  leaving  the  rest  as  pillars,  and  sell  it  at  what  he  thinks 
is  a  profit.  Hundreds  of  others  are  doing  likewise.  The  selling 
price  at  the  mouth  of  the  shaft  is  reduced  to  only  a  few  cents 
over  the  apparent  cost  and  the  first  thing  he  knows  the  man 
wakes  up  and  finds  that  his  capital  is  gone.  Nor  is  this  the 
worst.  The  most  unfortunate  part  is  that  the  remaining  coal  is 
irretrievably  lost  to  the  country,  on  account  of  poor  mining 
methods. 

There  is  no  reason  why  any  industry  should  sell  its  product 
at  a  price  which  will  not  allow  a  fair  return  to  both  the  operator 
and  the  workman.  We  talk  about  the  vicious  circle  of  high 
prices.     There  is  just  as  vicious  a  circle  of  low  prices. 

What  I  have  said  refers  primarily  to  wages.  The  other 
point  to  consider  is  output,  both  as  regards  quantity  and  quality. 
It  is  here  that  co-operation  between  the  employer  and  the  em- 
ployee is  going  to  yield  enormous  results.  I  think  that  a  fair 
presentation  of  the  case  before  anj^  body  of  workmen  will  even- 
tually lead  them  to  realize  that  in  the  long  run  efficiency  will  re- 
sult in  a  lower  selling  price  with  increased  profit  both  for  the 
laborer  and  for  the  employer.  It  is,  of  course  an  axiom  of 
political  economy  that  with  lower  prices  for  any  commodity 
there  is  a  larger  demand  for  it  and  thus  a  greater  use  for  it, 
with  a  consequent  raise  in  the  standard  of  comfort. 

As  I  said  before  the  total  sum  that  can  be  annually  distrib- 
uted to  the  worker  of  the  country  depends  primarily  upon  what 
he  does  and  if  we  can  assume,  as  I  think  we  can,  that  the  amount 


396  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

necessary  to  be  held  back  for  profits  on  capital  and  new  con- 
struction is  fixed,  then  greater  efficiency  and  larger  production 
primarily  tend  toward  increasing  the  sum  which  may  go  to  the 
worker. 

A  study  has  lately  been  made  of  industrial  conditions  in  Eng- 
land and  the  results  have  been  published  in  what  is  known  as 
the  Whitley  report.  This  proposes  co-operation  between  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employee  in  industry,  such  as  I  have  outlined  to 
you,  and  already  in  a  great  many  industries  the  organization  of 
councils  have  already  taken  place.  There  is  first  a  general  na- 
tion-wide council  of  the  whole  industry,  then  there  are  the  local 
councils  for  the  various  districts,  and  finally  the  councils  for  the 
individual  works.  Here  these  various  problems  are  threshed  out 
and  order  is  brought  into  chaos. 

I  now  come  to  the  point  which  interests  you  men  as  super- 
intendents more  than  anything  else.  As  you  all  know,  all  opera- 
tions of  industry  have  become  more  and  more  concentrated. 
The  day  of  the  little  shop,  where  the  employer  knew  all  his  men, 
has  disappeared  and  in  its  place  we  have  large  organizations  with 
anywhere  from  one  thousand  to  ten  thousand  men  where  it  is 
physically  impossible  for  the  owner  or  the  superintendent  to 
come  in  contact  with  all  of  his  employees.  The  result  has  been 
that  the  personal  touch  has  been  eliminated  and  the  worker 
thinks  all  his  employer  wants  is  to  get  as  much  out  of  him  as 
he  can  for  as  little  money  as  possible.  Undoubtedly  there  are 
employers  of  this  type  but  they  are  growing  fewer  and,  in  my 
estimation  will  in  time  entirely  disappear.  Undoubtedly  this 
point  of  contact  must  be  spread  out  into  numerous  points  of 
contact,  but  the  contact  must  still  be  kept  up.  You  will  recall 
that  twenty  years  ago  the  automobile  was  usually  of  the  one 
lunger  type  with  a  single  spark  plug.  Today  we  have  twelve 
cylinder  cars  with  twelve  spark  plugs.  In  industry  instead  of 
one  owner  we  now  have  a  dozen  and  sometimes  a  gross  of  fore- 
men. It  is  through  these  men  for  the  every  day  operations  that 
we  must  get  our  contact  with  the  worker.  It  was  Judge  George 
J.  O'Keefe,  who  suggested  this  simile  to  mc  the  other  day  and 
asked  me  if  I  could  not  say  that  "the  foreman  is  today  the  spark 
plug  of  the  industrial  machine." 


MAINTAINING  THE  WORKING  FORCE 


HOW  TO  REDUCE  LABOR  TURNOVER ' 

No  one  knows  how  much  it  costs  to  break  in  new  men.  The 
most  conservative  estimate  of  any  authority  is  $40  per  man,  but 
this,  as  well  as  every  other  estimate,  is,  after  all,  only  an  esti- 
mate. No  one  has  yet  used  an  exact  cost  system  for  recording 
the  waste  of  unnecessary  hiring  and  firing.  I  have  myself  pre- 
pared such  a  system  and  I  submitted  it  to  the  employment  man- 
agers' division  of  the  Executives'  Club  last  September.  As  yet 
no  one  has  put  it  into  eflfect,  although  several  plants  have  prom- 
ised to  do  so  as  soon  as  conditions  warrant. 

Aside  from  the  rather  careful  estimates  made  by  W.  A. 
Grieves  and  Magnus  Alexander,  we  have  only  occasional  flashes 
of  evidence  as  to  the  great  cost  of  labor  turnover. 

One  of  the  most  startling  evidences  which  has  come  to  my 
attention  may  be  gleaned  from  the  report  of  a  meeting  of  the 
production-methods  group  of  the  Executives'  Club  on  Septem- 
ber 20,  1916. 

Mr.  J.  T.  B.  Rheinfeldt,  head  of  the  manufacturing  standards 
department  of  the  Packard  Motor  Car  Co.,  had  explained  the 
methods  by  which  his  department  had  rated  the  expected  capa- 
city of  every  machine  and  production  center  in  that  great  plant. 
He  gave  out  the  information  that  the  ideal  capacity  is  25  per 
cent  higher  than  the  expected  capacity— that  is,  his  company  has 
25  per  cent  more  equipment  than  would  be  necessary  to  turn  out 
the  work,  if  it  were  not  necessary  to. allow  for  delays,  break- 
downs,  and  low-speed  production. 

I  now  quote  from  the  minutes : 

Mr.  Beatty  asked  if  the  standard  time  allowed  to  the  men  were  in- 
cluded in  the  25  per  cent  allowance  or  not. 

Mr.  Rheinfeldt  said  that  whenever  a  method  was  changed,  a  new  time 
study  was  made.  The  allowance  of  25  per  cent  was  a  blanket  to  cover 
shortages,   absence,  keeping  the   machine   going,   repair,   etc. 

Mr  Fisher  asked  how  much  of  the  25  per  cent  was  due  to  the  turn- 
over of  labor— that  is,  if  there  were  no  absence  to  be  contended  with,  how 
much  this  25  per  cent  could  be  reduced. 

Mr  Rheinfeldt  said  that  if  the  labor  turnover  were  zero,  the  factor 
could  be  eliminated  entirely,  as  the  allowance  on  the  time  study  would 
care  for  the  repairs,  breakage  of  tools  and  machines,  etc. 

I  By  Boyd  Fisher.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Bui.  227.  p.  29- 
47.      October,    1917- 


398  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Think  of  this  for  a  moment.  The  physical  equipment  of  the 
Packard  Motor  Car  Co.  is  worth,  in  round  figures,  $9,000,000. 
If  the  turnover  of  labor  were  reduced  to  zero,  this  huge  invest- 
ment could,  in  Mr.  Rheinfcldt's  opinion,  be  reduced  by  $i,8oo,ouo. 
The  interest  at  6  per  cent  on  this  amount  of  money  is  $108,000 
per  annum. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Is  it  not  fair  to  assume  that  labor  cost  would 
also  be  reduced  25  per  cent  if  there  were  no  turnover?  If  so, 
out  of  12,000  employees,  the  wages  of  2,400  men  and  supei'visors, 
anything  from  a  million  and  a  half  to  two  and  a  half  million 
dollars  a  year,  could  be  wiped  out. 

Now  a  word  about  the  reliability  of  the  above  figures.  They 
are  not  worth  very  much.  In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Rheinfeldt  may 
have  been  in  error  in  estimating  his  ideal  capacity.  He  may 
have  overstated  the  case,  too,  when  he  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  a  complete  elimination  of  turnover  would  eliminate  the  25 
per  cent  extra  capacity  added  to  the  standard  time  allowance. 
Furthermore,  I  have  purposely  avoided  giving  exact  figures  on 
equipment  investment  and  on  the  wages  of  one-fifth  of  12,000 
employees.  I  don't  want  the  figures  on  cost  of  turnover  in  the 
Packard  plant  to  seem  to  be  exact. 

But  I  do  want  to  enforce  this  point.  The  Packard  employ- 
ment department  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  conducted  in 
Detroit.  It  has  already  effected  vast  savings  in  cost  of  turn- 
over and  yet  the  head  of  the  standards  department,  the  man 
who  with  his  assistants  sets  all  standard  working  times  in  the 
plant,  estimates  that  new  and  inexperienced  workmen  reduce 
the  speed  of  production  so  much  that  a  25  per  cent  allowance 
of  equipment,  buildings,  direct  labor  and  supervision  must  be 
made. 

Try  that  tune  on  your  piano.  Figure  what  it  would  mean  to 
your  company  annually  to  add  25  per  cent  to  your  cost  to  break 
in  new  men. 

Do  you  know  that  it  doesn't?-  We  have  no  true  figures  for 
cost  of  turnover  as  yet.  Until  we  get  them  we  must  rest  our 
case  upon  such  indirect  evidences  as  Mr.  Rheinfcldt's  startling 
estimate. 

We  can  also  gather  other  evidences  of  the  cost  of  breaking 
in  new  men  by  a  study  of  plants  which  have  kept  a  steady  force, 
and  by  comparing  production  records  per  man  at  the  beginning 
and  at  the   end  of   the  periods   during  which  the  reduction  of 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        399 

labor  turnover  took  place.  This,  however,  is  not  a  very  reliable 
guide,  because  a  good  part  of  the  increased  production  might 
have  come  from  the  introduction  of  more  scientific  methods.  It 
is  significant,  however,  that  every  plant  in  Detroit  that  has  re- 
duced its  turnover  of  labor  in  the  last  year  has  increased  its  out- 
put per  man.     In  some  cases  it  has  doubled  it. 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  fact,  to  prove  that  losing  men  costs 
money.  There  is  a  very  general  agreement  upon  that  point,  and 
there  is  also  a  pretty  general  agreement  upon  the  possibility  of 
ascribing  to  success  in  creating  a  stable  force  some  of  the  in- 
crease in  production  which  appears  concurrently.  Employment 
managers,  I  take  it,  desire  not  so  much  to  be  persuaded  that  it 
is  worth  while  to  discover  methods  of  reducing  the  needless  ex- 
change of  employees  as  to  have  proof  that  they  can  keep  men 
on  the  job  by  definite  methods  which  have  succeeded  in  other 
plants. 

I  have  some  very  interesting  figures  on  the  reduction  of  turn- 
over in  Detroit  plants  during  the  last  year  or  thereabouts.  La- 
bor conditions  during  this  time  have  been  very  disheartening, 
and,  in  all  firms  where  employment  departments  have  been  estab- 
lished for  a  long  time,  the  exchange  of  employees,  in  spite  of  in- 
telligent work,  has  increased  during  the  last  year.  This  is  a 
very  interesting  fact  when  taken  in  conjunction  with  another 
distinct  and  contrasting  fact,  namely,  that  in  all  plants  that  have 
installed  employment  departments  within  the  last  year  or 
more  the  turnover  of  labor  has  generally  declined  during  this 
bad  year. 

Take  the  Saxon  Motor  Car  Co.  for  instance.  Its  employment 
department  has  been  in  full  running  order  only  a  little  over  a 
year,  and  in  the  first  year  of  its  operation  it  has  hired  140  fewer 
men  for  each  hundred  on  the  pay  roll.  This  figure  is  obtained 
by  subtracting  the  turnover  figures  at  the  end  of  the  year  from 
the  turnover  figures  at  the  beginning. 

Take,  again,  the  Hayes  Manufacturing  Co.,  where  the  em- 
ployment department  was  established  in  April,  1915.  In  the  first 
year  of  operation  turnover  was  cut  practically  in  two.  And  then 
in  the  next  four  months  from  April  to  August  the  turnover  was 
more  than  cut  in  two  again  and  has  been  declining  slightly  ever 
since.  This  reduction  was  accompanied  b}^  a  30  per  cent  increase 
in  output  per  man.  Then  there  is  the  Timken-Detroit  Axle  Co., 
where  the  labor  department  has  been  in  operation  for  16  months 


400  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

and  where  foremen  are  given  a  bonus  for  what  is  known  as 
"force  maintenance  efficiency."  During  these  i6  months  this 
efficiency  has  increased  20  per  cent.  I  refrain  from  giving  the 
figures  upon  which  this  percentage  is  based  because  the  Timkcn 
does  not  desire  to  reveal  the  exact  turnover  data. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  records  I  know  of,  with  regard 
to  reduction  of  turnover  as  the  result  of  the  installation  of  a 
complete  labor  department,  is  that  of  the  Solvay  Co.,  of  Detroit. 
The  record  is  so  good  that  I  am  going  to  take  the  risk  of  quot- 
ing the  exact  turnover  figures.  The  Semet-Solvay  (Coke)  Co. 
and  the  Solvay  Process  Co.  occupy  adjoining  factories  on  the 
same  plot  of  land,  but  maintain  entirely  separate  management. 
Up  to  the  1st  of  June,  1916,  the  Semet-Solvay  Co.  had  an  em- 
ployment department  and  the  Solvay  Process  Co.,  on  the  other 
hand,  permitted  each  foreman  to  hire  his  own  men. 

When  it  came  to  the  attention  of  the  management  of  the 
Solvay  Process  Co.  that  they  were  having  labor  difficulties  which 
did  not  appear  in  the  Semet-Solvay,  the  employment  manager 
in  the  Semet-Solvay  was  given  entire  charge  of  hiring  and  firing 
in  both  plants.  The  average  turnover  for  the  two  plants  durhig 
the  month  of  May  was  10  per  cent.  In  the  month  of  June, 
after  the  employment  department  had  taken  over  the  work  of 
the  Solvay  Co.  also,  the  turnover  of  the  two  plants  dropped  to 
8.3  per  cent.  In  Julj%  it  was  8  per  cent;  in  August,  4.1  per  cent; 
in  September,  3.3  per  cent;  in  October,  3  per  cent;  in  Novem- 
ber, 2.6  per  cent;  in  December,  2.4  per  cent  This  is  the  most 
remarkable  record  of  employment  department  efficiency  that  I 
know  of  anywhere,  and  when  you  take  into  consideration  the 
fact  that  the  average  turnover  of  labor  in  Detroit  was  jumping 
up  by  leaps  and  bounds  at  the  same  time  that  the  Solvay  com- 
panies were  greatly  reducing  their  turnover,  it  appears  even 
more  surprising. 

I  have  just  analyzed  the  turnover  figures  for  the  last  year  in 
57  Detroit  plants,  and  find  that  they  average  a  little  over  252  per 
cent  per  plant.  This  is,  of  course,  very  high  because  labor  con- 
ditions have  been  unprecedcntedly  bad.  The  figures,  however, 
are  not  as  high  as  they  would  be  if  they  did  not  include  the 
comparatively  low  averages  of  plants  having  employment  de- 
partments, as  well  as  of  plants  which  allow  foremen  to  do  their 
own  hiring  and  firing.  An  analysis  of  plants  having  labor  de- 
partments against  those  having  no  labor  department  shows  that, 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  401 

roughly  averaged,  the  plants  having  no  employment  department 
hired  3  men  to  every  2  hired  by  those  which  did  have  employ- 
ment departments. 

I  do  not  attempt  to  give  more  exact  figures  because  I  am 
somewhat  skeptical  of  the  correctness  of  many  of  the  reports 
which  came  to  me,  particularly  from  plants  that  have  no  regular 
employment  department.  I  suspect  that  if  we  had  entirely  re- 
liable figures  from  all  plants,  the  record  of  those  having  no  em- 
ployment departments  would  show  up  even  worse  in  comparison 
than  they  do. 

It  would  be  enlightening,  if  you  have  time,  to  take  each  indi- 
vidual case  of  labor  turnover  reduction  and  trace  out  the  meth- 
ods by  which  this  was  accomplished.  In  a  fairly  short  presenta- 
tion, however,  it  is  preferable  to  outline  a  complete  scheme  for 
labor  turnover  reduction  based  upon  the  combined  experiences 
of  a  number  of  plants  having  employment  departments.  I  de- 
sire, therefore,  to  offer  what  appears  to  be  a  combination  of  all 
the  approved  remedies  for  what  is  sometimes  known  as  the 
"mobility  of  labor."  Obviously  not  all  parts  of  the  complete 
scheme  can  be  applied  to  every  plant.  And  good  authorities 
may  feel  that  some  of  the  methods  outlined  have  no  business  to 
be  in  the  scheme  at  all  for  any  plant. 

Permit  me  at  the  start  a  doubtful  generalization.  A  certain 
manager  of  a  Detroit  plant  which  had  a  complete  installation  ot 
scientific  management  and  which  was  used  as  a  model  for  study 
by  all  other  Detroit  plants,  left  to  take  over  the  management  of 
an  automobile  company  in  another  city.  He  found  the  new  plant 
devoid  of  any  semblance  of  scientific  management  and  yet  for  a 
whole  year  he  did  nothing  to  change  the  internal  methods  of  this 
plant.  He  found  upon  analysis  that  So  per  cent  of  the  cost  of 
his  product  came  in  the  purchase  of  products  made  in  other 
plants.  Therefore,  in  order  to  reduce  the  cost  of  his  product 
he  found  that  he  would  have  to  spend  most  of  his  efforts  in  re- 
ducing the  cost  of  the  products  made  outside.  So  it  is,  I  think, 
with  labor  turnover.  I  believe  that  we  may  safely  say  that  So 
per  cent  of  the  cost  of  turnover  of  labor  is  due  to  causes  that 
lie  outside  of  direct  plant  activities;  that  is,  when  the  workman 
is  off  duty. 

Now  the  remarkable  thing  that  is  developing  in  employment 
work  in  Detroit  is  a  disposition  to  tackle  the  whole  job  of  re- 
formation.   Like  the  automobile  manufacturers  just  referred  to, 


402  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

our  employers  are  striving  to  reduce  the  80  per  cent  item  of  cost 
of  inefficient  labor  where  the  expense  is  incurred;  that  is,  out- 
side of  their  own  plants.  They  recognize  that  turnover  of  labor 
is  a  special  phase  of  the  problem  of  inefficient  labor,  and  that  the 
reduction  of  turnover  is  only  the  first  step  in  a  process  of  edu- 
cation and  of  economic  pressure  to  elevate  the  standards  of 
workmen.  They  aim  not  only  to  keep  workmen,  but  to  develop 
them.  And  they  are  prepared  to  go  as  far  as  the  workmen's 
own  home  life,  even,  to  solve  their  problem. 

Much  of  the  impetus  to  this  thorough-going  eflfort  comes 
from  Henry  Ford.  Employers  sometimes  feel  that  they  have 
much  to  forgive  in  Henry  Ford,  but  most  of  his  fault  lies  in 
doing  so  many  things  first.  One  of  these  is  the  extension  of 
factory  influence  into  the  whole  life  of  the  workmen.  All  De- 
troit plants  are  beginning  to  follow  him  in  this,  and  I  honestly 
believe  that  they  arc  profiting  by  his  experience,  and  are  taking 
the  best  and  leaving  the  worst  of  his  plan.  Denied  the  credit  of 
initiating  the  plan  and  free  from  the  fear  of  precipitating  any 
such  startled  inquiries  as  have  beset  Mr.  Ford,  they  are  able  to 
proceed  slowly,  quietly,  and  cautiously.  The  results  so  far  have 
been  good. 

Miss  Ida  M.  Tarbell  came  to  Detroit  prepared  to  revolt  at 
un-American  interference  with  the  private  concerns  of  workers 
as  evidenced  by  the  Ford  procedure,  and  went  away  convinced  in 
its  favor.  She  said  of  the  Ford  scheme  to  the  Executives'  Club, 
"I  don't  care  what  you  call  it — philanthropy,  paternalism,  autoc- 
racy— the  results  which  are  being  obtained  arc  worth  all  you 
can  set  against  them,  and  the  errors  in  the  plan  will  provoke 
their  own  remedies." 

So  you  will  find  in  my  scheme  of  labor  turnover  reduction  a 
concrete  statement — a  bill  of  particulars,  so  to  speak — of  the 
philosophy  of  the  more  progressive  Detroit  employers.  Turn- 
over breeds  inefficiency.  Inefficiency  breeds  turnover  and  the 
only  way  to  break  the  vicious  circle  is  to  attack  them,  both  at 
one  time,  and,  for  the  most  part,  outside  of  direct  factory  ac- 
tivities. 

The  employment  department  in  this  view  becomes  the  vesti- 
bule not  alone  to  the  factory,  but  to  a  better  life.  The  employ- 
ment supervisor  becomes  a  copartner  with  the  teacher,  the  min- 
ister, the  social  worker,  in  the  business  of  reforming  men.  It 
wasn't  Billy  Sunday,  it  was  the  employers  of  Michigan  that  put 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  403 

the  State  in  the  prohibition  column.  They  wanted  to  remove  the 
saloon  on  the  route  between  the  home  and  the  factory.  For  the 
sake  of  securing  more  efficient  workmen,  our  employers  and 
their  personal  representatives — the  employment  managers — are 
fighting  for  the  elimination  of  vice  and  gambling  through  Mr. 
James  Couzens,  formerly  vice  president  of  the  Ford  Co.  and 
now  police  commissioner.  They  are  fighting  for  better  schools 
through  Mr.  Mumford,  of  the  Edison  and  now  president  of  the 
school  board,  and  for  better  city  government,  more  adequate 
housing,  and  better  street  car  facilities,  throvtgh  the  disinterested 
public  services  of  many  busy  manufacturers. 

Nor  do  our  social  reforming  employment  managers  confine 
themselves  to  dragnet  measures  of  improvement.  The  scheme  I 
have  assembled  is  a  routine  of  particular  measures  from  each 
manufacturer,  according  to  his  ability,  unto  each  workman,  ac- 
cording to  his  need.  Nearly  every  measure  outlined  is  actually 
in  effect  in  some  Detroit  plant,  and  all  of  them,  based  upon  ex- 
perience somewhere,  are  at  least  in  project. 

Let  us  take  up  remedies  for  labor  turnover  and  inefficiency 
under  four  main  headings — preliminary,  fundamental,  supple- 
mental, and  provocative  remedies — and  speak  first  of  the  pro- 
vocative remedies.     (See  outline  of  these  remedies,  pages  45  to 

47.) 

I  believe  in  firing  men  as  a  final  means  of  keeping  men.  We 
are  in  danger  of  becoming  too  sentimental  about  turnover.  We 
are  too  likely  to  regard  every  man  lost  as  an  unwholesome  sign. 
There  is  a  legitimate  place  yet  for  the  "tin  can,"  and  when  it  h 
tied  to  man  or  beast  it  ought  to  have  something  in  it  to  make 
it  rattle.  But  the  condemnation  that  reverberates  most  noisily 
is  the  deliberate  unfavorable  judgment  of  one's  peers.  I  believe 
that  every  discharge  should  be  certified  to  by  a  committee  on 
which  workmen  are  represented.  This  is  my  notion  as  yet,  but 
Dodge  Bros,  go  as  far  as  providing  a  blue  envelope  committee 
and  no  arbitrary  individual  judgment  can  effect  a  discharge. 
Slowness  and  cautious  fairness  in  getting  into  action,  however, 
only  advertises  the  final  result.  When  a  man  goes  out  of  that 
plant,  he  isn't  summarily  kicked  out,  it  is  true,  but  it  looks  much 
more  impressive  to  be  shoved  out  slowly  by  a  consensus. 

Let  us  by  all  means  have  the  trump  card  of  discharge  in  our 
hand  and  then  strive  to  win  by  playing  off  suit.  If  it  is  clearly 
understood  by  workmen  that  the  patience  of  the  management  is 


404  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

the  forbearance  of  strength  and  self-control,  all  our  other  meth- 
ods of  reducing  turnover  will  gain  in  effectiveness. 

Now,  strictly  speaking,  what  I  have  classed  as  preliminary 
measures,  namely,  a  cost  system  and  a  record  system  for  turn- 
over, do  nothing  in  themselves  to  retain  a  permanent  working 
force.  But  without  them  the  effective  measures  are  not  likely 
to  be  applied. 

A  true  cost  system  is  an  urgent  necessity.  If  it  is  true,  as 
Mr.  Magnus  Alexander  estimates,  that  it  costs  $73.50  to  break  in 
a  new  semiskilled  operative  and  only  $8.50  to  take  on  a  new 
laborer,  mere  percentage  figures  for  turnover  mean  very  little. 
I  will  not  go  into  details  at  this  time,  but  I  submit  that  we 
should  know  how  much  each  type  of  new  worker  costs  in  terms 
of  diminished  production  resulting  and  of  the  excess  equipment 
investment  needed,  increased  scrap  incurred  and  increased  super- 
vision and  education  required.  Managers  may  affect  to  believe 
that  it  costs  $400,000  a  year  to  hire  10,000  men,  but  they  won't 
spend  even  $50,000  to  save  that  sum  until  you  prove  incontro- 
vertibly  the  actual  expense  of  new  men.  The  thorough-going 
remedies  for  turnover  are  so  expensive  that  until  even  the  most 
skeptical  managers  are  convinced  we  shall  not  get  far  with  our 
corrective  measures. 

As  for  a  complete  record  system,  little  preachment  is  neces- 
sary. The  aim  should  be  twofold.  The  records  should  reveal 
graphically  not  only  the  extent  but  the  causes  of  turnover,  and 
they  should  reveal  the  parallelism  between  high  turnover  and 
low  efficiency.  The  basis,  of  course,  is  an  individual  register 
for  each  man,  so  complete  that  all  other  reports  can  be  drawn 
directly  from  this.  Aside  from  the  usual  historical  facts,  show- 
ing dates  of  employing  or  transferring,  the  starting  rates  and 
changes  of  rates  and  date  of  leaving  employ,  together  with  orig- 
inal application  and  examination  forms,  this  individual  record 
should  be  a  chronicle  of  the  workman's  progress,  on  such  items 
as  earnings  and  bonuses,  defective  work,  absences  and  tardiness, 
his  complaints  and  those  charged  against  him,  a  periodic  certifi- 
cation by  foremen,  and,  when  he  leaves,  his  apparent  or  de- 
clared reasons  for  going. 

The  turnover  should  be  analyzed  at  least  monthly,  and  the 
record  should  show:  (a)  By  weeks,  months,  and  years  how 
long  quitters  have  been  in  the  employ,  in  order  to  reveal  the 
critical   periods    when    men    are   most   lightly   attached  to    their 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  405 

jobs;  (b)  by  departments,  to  show  what  foremen  or  classes  of 
work  are  most  at  fault;  and  (c),  by  reasons  assigned,  to  show 
what  conditions  call  for  improvement.  It  should  show,  also, 
(d)  what  operations  furnish  the  greatest  mobility,  so  that,  if  a 
cost  of  new  employees  has  been  estabUshed  for  each  operation, 
the  monthly  losses  from  turnover  can  be  exactly  computed. 

Fundamental  remedies  for  turnover  differ  from  what  I  call 
supplemental  only  in  relative  importance.  If  you  hire  men  wise- 
ly, provide  them  with  steady  work  at  an  adequate  wage,  and  re- 
frain from  hasty  discharges,  your  turnover  will  be  comparative- 
ly low. 

The  supplemental  remedies  are  refinements  designed  rather 
to  promote  efficiency  in  the  men  you  keep,  than  to  furnish  addi- 
tional means  of  keeping  them,  and  are  likely,  thus,  to  exercise 
an  indirect  influence  in  reducing  turnover. 

It  is  almost  begging  the  question  to  say,  hire  the  right  men 
for  the  jobs,  because,  obviously,  the  right  man  is  the  man  whom 
you  will  like  and  who  will  like  you.  But  there  is  room  for  so 
much  development  here  that  I  know  of  almost  no  other  remedy 
that  will  reach  so  far.  When  foremen  hire,  they  grab  the  first 
man  who  shows  up,  and  fire  him  when  he  doesn't  make  good. 
And  a  good  many  employment  managers  do  almost  the  same 
thing.  In  part  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  haven't  the  re- 
sources to  write  up  exact  specifications  for  all  the  jobs  for 
which  they  employ ;  still  more  because  none  of  us  has  thorough- 
ly satisfactory  tests  of  abihty  and  character.  But  still  more  it 
is  due  to  enforced  haste  in  filling  requisitions.  Foremen,  plan- 
ning department  men,  and  managers  do  not  give  the  employ- 
ment department  enough  notice  of  men  needed.  A  list  of  men 
required  for  the  year's  predicted  production  should  be  just  as 
much  a  part  of  the  engineering  department's  specifications  as 
the  blue  prints  and  routing.  It  is  certainly  as  easy  to  predict 
men  required  as  to  predict  cost,  for  without  the  labor,  how  can 
the  cost  be  estimated?  And,  yet,  how  many  employment  depart- 
ments know  two  days  ahead,  even,  the  men  they  will  be  called 
upon  to  hire?  I  say  inform  your  employment  manager  as  far 
ahead  to  supply  new  men  as  you  inform  your  purchasing  agent 
to  supply  material. 

With  advance  information  he  can  build  up  the  right  kind  of 
application  list.  If  your  files  list  only  men  that  have  applied 
voluntarily,  it  will  be  as  unsatisfactory  as  a  list  of  sales  pros- 
pects that  you  might  secure  without  solicitors  or  advertising. 


4o6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

The  best  application  file  is  really  a  prospect  file,  built  up  as 
the  result  of  a  census  of  the  workers  suited  to  your  plant,  in 
your  whole  city  and  particularly  your  vicinity.  The  Cole  Motor 
Co.  of  Indianapolis  has  just  completed  an  inclusive  industrial 
census.  The  Saxon  Motor  Co.  of  Detroit  tells  me  that  the  sim- 
ple measure  that  did  most  to  produce  its  remarkable  turnover 
reductions  was  the  practice  of  preferring  men  who  live  within 
walking  distance  of  the  plant. 

With  a  knowledge  of  men  to  be  hired,  the  employment  man- 
ager can  prepare  specifications  and  forms  of  examination  which 
will  do  much  to  eliminate  men  who  would  not  make  good  if 
hired. 

Physical  examinations  arc,  of  course,  a  necessity  in  a  good 
system,  and  they  should  be  tied  up  with  the  measures  for  im- 
proving men  once  on  the  pay  roll,  by  having  the  examiner  indi- 
cate deficiencies  to  be  corrected.  But  even  examinations  and 
such  other  precautions  as  visits  to  the  homes  of  desired  appli- 
cants, and  a  checking  up  of  previous  records  of  employment  can 
be  resorted  to  only  if  ample  time  for  inquiry  is  secured. 

There  is  not  space  in  this  paper  to  deal  with  the  question  of 
industrial  education,  but  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that  one 
does  not  always  need  to  go  outside  of  his  own  plant  to  put  on 
a  new  man.  It  is  always  cheaper  to  transfer  from  a  less  im- 
portant position  an  employee  who  has  been  in  training  for  a 
promotion.  A  work  force  can  be  more  certainly  toned  up  by 
educating  apprentices  and  giving  a  continuing  and  broadening 
education  to  operatives  than  by  hiring  brand  new  men  by  any 
system  of  careful  selection  whatever.  The  growing  demands  of 
industry  far  outrun  the  supply  of  skilled  workers,  and  not  only 
to  contribute  its  share  of  trained  people  but  even  to  obtain  its 
share,  a  plant  must  cooperate  in  the  general  educational  pro- 
gram. 

Now  one  of  the  most  basic  remedies  for  turnover  is  the 
payment  of  an  adequate  wage,  and  this  can  be  urged  only  upon 
plants  that  have  taken  pains  before  hiring  to  ascertain  whether 
the  applicant's  home  life  and  standards  of  living,  as  well  as  his 
mental  and  physical  fitness  promise  his  being  able  to  earn  an 
adequate  wage. 

By  an  adequate,  I  don't  mean  merely  a  minimum  wage.  I 
mean  a  good  fat  wage— one  that  will  clothe,  nourish,  and  edu- 
cate his  children  as  well  as  feed  him  up  properly.     The  Visiting 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  407 

Housekeepers'  Association  of  Detroit  estimates  that  the  lowest 
possible  minimum  income  for  a  family  of  five  is  $89,  and  no 
family  in  Detroit  is  wise  enough  to  know  how  to  spend  that 
sum  well.  Eleven  plants  in  the  Executives'  Club  have  under- 
taken deliberately  to  see  that  every  workman,  taking  each  case 
individualh',  by  investigation,  is  sufficiently  supported.  Some  of 
them  discover  that  for  special  reasons  some  families  can't  live 
on  $100  per  month.  Any  number  of  plants,  such  as  the  Packard, 
Cadillac,  Solvay,  and  Hudson,  make  not  only  general  studies  of 
cost  of  living  but  particular  inquiries,  and  where  necessary,  pay 
ofif  at  good  discounts  the  debts  of  overburdened  workers,  allow- 
ing them  to  return  payment  periodically. 

In  my  outline  I  have  indicated  a  number  of  ways  in  which 
the  modern  factory  management  follows  up  the  pay  envelope 
by  helping  the  worker  to  escape  the  shark,  to  purchase  wisely, 
and  to  stretch  the  purchasing  power  of  every  dollar  he  earns. 
Many  mutual  aid  associations  and  several  legal  aid  bureaus  have 
already  been  established,  and  many  plants  encourage  thrift  and 
assist  in  home  building.  We  not  only  have  seven  or  eight  co- 
operative stores  in  process  of  establishment,  but  six  of  them  are 
considering  plans  to  purchase  jointly  through  the  Executives' 
Club.  A  report  on  83  successful  mutual  aid  societies  has  been 
compiled  by  Helen  Bacon  of  the  Executives'  Club  staff.  It  may 
be  obtained  for  one  dollar. 

As  for  the  remedy  of  steady  work,  you  should  note  that  it  is 
just  as  important  to  keep  pieceworkers  continuously  supplied 
with  work,  so  that  they  can  earn  their  expected  income,  as  it  is 
to  regularize  work  from  season  to  season  so  as  to  keep  a  level 
force.  In  fact,  it  is  sometimes  kinder  to  men  to  lay  them  off 
outright  than  to  try  to  keep  them  while  they  are  earning  partial 
wages.  Employment  managers  can  not  do  much  to  regularize 
production  from  season  to  season  and  from  day  to  day,  because 
these  things  are  largely  matters  of  administrative  policy  and  of 
factory  system,  but  if  they  recognize  and  advertise  the  import- 
ance of  these  things,  they  will  focus  the  attention  of  their  su- 
periors upon  the  necessary  remedies. 

When  I  say,  finally,  under  the  head  of  fundamental  remedies, 
don't  fire  hastily,  I  not  only  mean  to  urge  that  you  curb  ill- 
tempered  foremen  and  curb  your  own  impatience,  but  I  mean, 
especially,  to  give  yourself  time  to  influence  men  through  the 
more   slowly  acting  measures  headed  up  in   this   outline  under 


4o8  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

"Supplemental  remedies."  It  would  be  of  very  little  avail,  either 
as  a  means  of  reselecting  or  of  diciplining  men  who  had  failed 
in  one  job,  to  transfer  them  from  department  to  department,  as 
the  Ford  Motor  Co.,  for  instance,  does  with  so  much  patience, 
unless  every  day  counted  to  give  a  man  not  only  new  hope  but 
new  instruction. 

So,  I  say,  start  your  new  men  right,  promote  physical  effici- 
ency, foster  good  habits,  make  your  work  an  unfolding  career, 
and  a  sufficient  future,  and  all  the  time  encourage  self-expres- 
sion, not  only  of  complaints  but  of  suggestions  and  of  co-opera- 
tive interest  and  activity. 

To  start  new  men  right  means  not  alone  to  give  them  a 
pleasant  and  encouraging  impression  of  their  new  work  but  also 
to  complete  the  job  of  hiring  them.  A  man  isn't  really  engaged 
for  a  job  until  he  is  engaged  in  it,  and  too  often  plants  throw 
needless  difficulties  into  a  man's  path  between  the  time  they 
agree  to  hire  him  and  the  time  when  he  settles  down  to  work. 
An  agreement  to  employ,  in  the  first  place,  isn't  completed  until 
the  new  man  is  given  a  definite  guaranty  of  his  starting  rate  of 
pay.  You  can  not  be  sure  of  a  man  doing  anything  but  spoiling 
work  for  a  day  and  wasting  your  time  if  you  take  him  on  first 
and  then  let  the  foreman  settle  his  rate  of  pay  afterward. 

Give  your  man  a  definite  starting  wage,  and,  so  far  as  possi- 
ble, a  reasonable  assurance  of  the  rates  to  which  he  will  be  ad- 
vanced at  stated  times  if  he  makes  certain  standards  of  effici- 
ency.   Then  if  he  accepts  your  job,  you  can  be  more  sure  of  him. 

But  it  is  just  as  imporant  to  help  a  man  get  over  his  stage 
fright  in  tackling  a  new  job.  Most  men  sufifcr  acutely  in  contact 
with  strange  surroundings.  Even  experienced  workers  discover 
unexpected  obstacles  in  new  machines,  and  most  new  men  will 
be  found  somewhat  to  have  exaggerated  their  qualifications  in 
order  to  be  taken  on.  You,  of  course,  have  discounted  their 
statements,  but  they  go  to  work  uneasy  in  the  thought  that  they 
have  "put  something  over"  on  you  and  are  afraid  of  being  found 
out.  Add  to  this  their  awkwardness  with  fellow  workmen  and 
bosses,  both  strange  to  them,  and  their  lack  of  acquaintance  with 
the  plant  and  you  get  a  frame  of  mind  which  makes  their  work 
of  little  value  to  you,  and  the  job  seem  undesirable  to  them. 

One  of  the  things  which  stood  out  in  my  mind  after  review- 
ing the  many  excellent  methods  of  the  German  American  But- 
ton Co.  of  Rochester  was  the  considerate  way  this  company  has 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        409 

of  introducing  new  employees.  New  people  are  asked  to  come 
at  an  appointed  time  later  than  the  hour  when  work  starts,  and 
are  introduced  by  a  representative  of  the  employment  depart- 
ment to  their  fellow  workers  and  made  acquainted  with  the 
rules,  the  conveniences  and  the  special  attractions  of  the  plant. 
A  fellow  worker  is  commissioned  to  take  them  to  luncheon  the 
first  day,  and  special  queries  are  answered.  It  is  important  to 
follow  this  method  of  introduction  up  and  to  have  instructors 
keep  an  eye  on  the  new  workers  till  they  bring  their  efficiency 
up  to  normal. 

It  may  be,  and  usually  is,  necessary  to  help  a  worker  out  with 
money  or  meal  tickets,  or  to  guarantee  his  board  till  the  first  full 
pay  day.  All  the  workmen  I  have  known  individually  have  gone 
to  new  jobs  "dead  broke."  Often  they  quit  on  some  pretext, 
after  working  a  few  days,  in  order  to  draw  pay  to  keep  from 
going  hungry.  The  Studebaker  Corporation  in  Detroit  is  especial- 
ly liberal  with  respect  to  meal  tickets  or  pay  advances  to  tide 
the  new  workman  over.  Much  injustice  is  done  new  workers  in 
keeping  them  on  day  rates  after  they  have  become  proficient 
enough  to  be  put  on  piecework.  While  1  have  not  analyzed  from 
this  point  of  view  the  high  turnover  of  labor  which,  I  know, 
comes  chiefly  in  the  first  few  weeks  of  employment,  I  suggest 
that  a  comparison  would  show  that  turnover  is  highest  at  just 
the  time  when  new  workers  should  be  put  on  piecework  and  are 
not.  I  have  followed  the  cases  of  workers  for  whom  I  secured 
jobs,  and  know  that  many  cite  this  as  a  reason  for  quitting. 
Two  plants  I  know  of  make  special  rates  to  beginners  higher 
than  the  piece  rates  of  experienced  employees  so  that  they  can 
measure  their  progress  from  day  to  day  and  more  speedily  get 
on  a  profitable  wage.  This  is  a  kind  of  minimum-wage  guaranty 
with  the  added  value  of  an  efficiency  scale. 

Assuming  our  workmen  well  hired  and  well  started,  the  pro- 
motion of  physical  efficiency  is  a  direct  means  of  increasing  pro- 
duction and  of  helping  men  to  earn  pay  which  will  keep  them  on 
the  job.  There  are  so  many  things  entering  into  this  that  it  is 
a  good  thing,  when  the  resources  of  the  company  warrant,  to 
have  a  physical  department  as  a  branch  of  the  employment  divi- 
sion, with  a  high-grade  physician  and  several  nurses  in  charge. 
There  is  not  space  in  this  paper  to  mention  any  of  the  many 
plants  which  do  this.  The  last  convention  of  the  American 
Medical  Association  devoted  a  section  to  physicians  in  industrial 


410  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

practice,  and  there  is  now  a  national  conference  board  on  the 
subject.  The  physical  department  will  generally  conduct  exam- 
inations of  desired  applicants  for  employment,  but  I  prefer  the 
more  economical  method  of  the  Flint  (Mich.)  Manufacturers' 
Association,  of  a  central  physical  examination  bureau  for  appli- 
cants. The  general  adoption  of  this  plan  would  free  the  time 
of  plant  physicians — who  would  still  be  needed  to  conduct  peri- 
odic examinations  of  all  workers,  as  a  basis  for  advice  on  better 
health.  Such  periodic  examinations  may  be  voluntary  at  the 
start,  and  perhaps  70  per  cent  of  the  employees  will  come  for- 
ward. Later,  say  after  the  second  or  third  time,  it  can  be  made 
compulsory.  It  will  reveal  surprisingly  the  causes  of  low  pro- 
duction in  many  cases,  and  help  to  eradicate  them.  The  physical 
department  should  supervise  plant  conditions  from  the  point  of 
view  of  health,  and  should  have  authority  on  the  improvement 
of  ventilation,  heating  and  lighting,  and  the  reduction  of  noise, 
dirt,  and  noxious  and  unpleasant  odors,  as  well  as  the  sanitation 
of  oils  and  waste,  the  purification  of  drinking  water  and  the 
cleanliness  of  all  public  rooms. 

The  Joseph  Fciss  &  Co.  in  Cleveland  and  the  German  Ameri- 
can Button  Co.  in  Rochester  are  among  the  plants  which  find  it 
profitable  to  add  a  dentist  and  an  oculist  on  part  time  to  care  for 
the  teeth  and  eyes  of  employees.  Most  workmen  have  bad  teeth, 
with  resulting  indigestion  and  other  degenerative  diseases,  and 
defective  eyesight  can  injure  workmen  and  slow  up  work  before 
they  lead  to  the  danger  of  accidents. 

The  physical  department,  of  course,  has  charge  of  the  emer- 
gency hospital,  and  in  this  connection  it  is  worth  while  to  say 
that  first  aid  should  be  prompt,  adequate  and  accessible,  as  it  too 
frequently  is  not. 

But  much  work  should  be  done  away  from  the  plant.  Physi- 
cians and  nurses  should  visit  workmen  kept  home  by  sickness, 
their  families'  as  well  as  their  own,  so  that  they  will  not  be  al- 
lowed to  neglect  illness.  Home  visits  help  reduce  absenteeism, 
but  they  are  justified  on  their  own  account  in  promoting  physical 
efficiency.  Plant  doctors  making  home  visits  will  know  how  to 
avoid  conflict  with  other  physicians  with  whose  work  they  may 
seem  to  interfere.  There  are  other  measures  which  do  not  come 
within  the  field  of  a  physical  department,  which  are  advisable, 
nevertheless,  on  the  score  of  increasing  a  workman's  efficiency. 
Such  expedients  are  plant  restaurants,  shorter  work  hours,  plant 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  411 

athletics,  rest  periods  during  the  day,  and  yearly  vacations  with 
pay. 

If  possible,  a  factory  should  arrange  to  maintain  its  own 
restaurant,  which  if  properly  managed  can  be  self-supporting. 
It  diminishes  a  workman's  energy  to  eat,  possibly  at  his  machine, 
a  cold  lunch  carried  in  a  paper  parcel  from  home. 

Shorter  work  hours,  while  diminishing  output  for  the  day,  in- 
crease it  for  the  period.  On  principle  I  favor  the  eight-hour 
day,  or,  at  most,  the  50-hour  week,  and  in  some  arduous  or  in- 
tensely monotonous  tasks  I  favor  an  even  shorter  day. 

An  investigation  which  I  made  a  year  ago  among  plants  hav- 
ing the  short  workday  convinced  me  that  where  a  worker  is  not 
limited  in  output  by  the  nature  of  the  process,  he  will  do  as 
much  in  48  hours  as  in  60.  Of  course,  to  secure  this  result  the 
plant  must  be  organized  to  keep  him  continuously  busy  for  eight 
hours,  and  an  incentive,  wage  payment  system  must  induce  full 
effort. 

My  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  eight-hour  day  springs  wholly 
from  my  belief  that  it  is  an  economy  for  the  well-organized  fac- 
tory and  a  gain  for  the  community.  Where  issues  with  unions 
arise  over  the  matter  or  where  consideration  for  the  interests 
of  other  manufacturers  enters  the  question  it  may  be  advisable 
for  a  limited  time  to  maintain  longer  hours  on  principle.  There 
is  always  something  to  be  said  for  the  status  quo,  and  where 
hours  are  to  be  shortened,  the  employer  has  a  right  to  demand 
time  for  adjustment  so  as  either  to  secure  some  increase  in  ef- 
fort from  the  workmen  or  to  pass  on  to  the  consumer  the  added 
expense  assumed  for  community  good. 

Furthermore,  I  believe  that  for  securing  increase  in  physical 
efficiency  it  is  preferable  to  distribute  a  part  of  the  added  leisure 
time  through  the  workday  in  the  form  of  rest  periods.  The 
Aluminum  Castings  Co.  of  Detroit  gives  a  five-minute  rest  period 
each  half  day.  A  company  in  Rochester  allows  one  rest  period 
of  3  to  12  minutes  in  every  hour,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
work.  To  secure  conformity  it  shuts  down  the  power  and  has 
recreation  organized  to  utilize  the  time.  There  is  as  yet  no  de- 
pendable information  on  fatigue,  in  spite  of  certain  German  re- 
searches and  the  more  recent  studies  of  the  British  association 
and  the  munitions  ministry,  but  the  experience  of  the  Army 
with  regard  to  forced  marches  and  the  experiments  made  by 
Frederick  W.  Taylor  long  ago  demonstrated  measurable  bene- 


412  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

fits  from  rest  periods.  Any  manager  may  make  a  first  test  by 
observing  the  effect  of  rest  periods  in  his  stenographic  depart- 
ment. A  working  principle  is  that  the  more  repetitive  the  opera- 
tion is,  the  shorter  the  cycle  of  time,  the  more  frequent  but 
briefer  the  rest  required  is.  And  too,  I  should  consider  it  ad- 
visable to  make  rest  periods  either  longer  or  more  frequent 
toward  the  close  of  the  day. 

A  vacation  is  one  kind  of  rest  period  in  the  above  sense. 
Shop  men  need  it  perhaps  more  than  office  workers,  and  should 
secure  it  on  the  same  terms.  It  is  advisable  to  tie  the  vacation 
plan  up  with  the  measures  to  reduce  absenteeism  by  making  the 
length  of  the  vacation  with  pay  vary  with  the  number  of  weeks 
of  satisfactory  attendance.  Strike  fever  is  often  vacation  fever. 
Shrewd  managers,  if  they  had  no  more  altruistic  aim,  might  well 
plan  vacations  to  promote  industrial  equanimity. 

It  is  needless  to  elaborate  on  the  benefits  of  athletics  in  rela- 
tion to  health.  They  are,  if  anything,  more  important  as  self- 
expression,  which  I  shall  mention  later. 

A  separate  supplemental  remedy  for  turnover  is  the  develop- 
ment of  good  work  habits.  This  relates  particularly  to  punctual- 
ity and  regularity.  The  man  who  is  on  time  every  day  is  least 
likely  to  quit  work.  His  mental  attitude  becomes  fixed  in  a  feel- 
ing of  responsibility  toward  his  work.  But  the  worker  who  be- 
comes casual  with  regard  to  attendance  has  taken  the  first  step 
toward  total  delinquency.  You  have  only  to  picture  the  subcon- 
scious mental  processes  of  a  man  who  remains  away  from  work 
one  day  needlessly  to  appreciate  the  subtle  change  of  attitude  he 
bears  toward  his  job.  To  foster  good  habits,  we  enumerate  such 
measures  as  prompt  investigation  of  causes  of  unexcuscd  ab- 
sence, strict  penalties  for  tardiness,  bonus  for  regular  attendance 
(one  Detroit  company,  for  instance,  paying  25  cents  a  day  extra 
for  a  month's  perfect  record)  and  the  establishment  of  a  pay 
system  such  as  piecework,  premium  or  bonus,  which  encourages 
and  rewards  accuracy,  high  output,  and  puctuality. 

All  other  remedies  for  turnover  are  likely  to  be  chiefly  nega- 
tive or  counteractive  unless  the  management  encourages  self- 
expression.  First,  hear  complaints.  No  matter  how  unwisely 
or  unfairly  objections  are  presented,  give  men  every  chance  to 
"knock."  Let  them  come  individually  by  preference.  But  even 
if  you  deprecate  grievance  committees,  never  refuse  to  hear  a 
committee  once  appointed.     Some  men  satisfy  complaints  by  be- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  413 

ing  allowed  to  air  them,  just  as  some  old  people  desire  not  so 
much  to  be  cured  of  ailments  as  to  have  ailments  to  describe. 

It  is  better,  however,  to  pick  up  complaints  before  they  be- 
come grievances — while  they  may  be  still  an  expression  of  some 
form  of  idealism — and  to  deal  with  disquieting  aspirations  be- 
fore they  become  programs.  For  this  purpose  shop  meetings 
called  by  managers,  and  scheduled  to  discuss  pleasant  and  hope- 
ful enterprises  as  well  as  difficulties,  preserve  good  feeling.  Like 
wise  parliamentary  leaders  who  head  off  taking  a  vote  until  the 
majority  will  fall  their  way,  or  who  sense  out  a  needed  com- 
promise or  recession  before  it  is  exacted,  a  good  manager  can 
employ  a  shop  meeting  either  to  approve  his  suggestions  or  to 
applaud  his  discernment. 

But  self-expression  goes  beyond  this.  It  may  be  interest  in 
work  evoked  by  a  suggestion  system.  If  you  make  it  an  invaria- 
ble practice  to  acknowledge  in  writing  every  proposal  in  writing, 
you  have  a  suggestion  system.  Boxes  to  receive  letters,  and 
prizes,  commendation  and  promotions  to  reward  them,  are  mere 
refinements.  Then  there  is  the  still  more  exuber-ant  and  satisfy- 
ing form  of  self-expression  which  appears  in  social,  athletic,  and 
cooperative  organization.  We  are  all  nearly  as  ambitious  for 
communal  as  for  financial  rewards.  You  can  not  bring  500  people 
together  in  a  factory  or  anywhere  else  habitually  without 
providing  a  field  for  social  striving.  They  crave  organization, 
fun,  activity,  and  influence  upon  one  another.  You,  as  managers, 
can  capitalize  this  tendency  to  the  advantage  of  your  enterprise. 
You  can  make  your  organization  a  real  family,  your  plant  a  com- 
munal home. 

Self-expression  is  self-rewarding.  No  life  is  complete  with- 
out it,  and  the  factory  which  does  not  promote  it  is  repressing  a 
vital  part  of  the  complete  life. 

Now,  when  we  reduce  turnover  of  labor  we  assume  certain 
responsibilities.  Building  up  a  permanent  working  force  means 
securing  permanent  employees,  men  and  women  who  stay  with 
us  till  they  grow  old,  and  retire  or  die.  We  must,  therefore, 
make  their  work  more  completely  satisfying.  We  must  make 
their  work  a  sufficient  career.  Self-expression  is  one  part  of  it, 
and  there  are  other  elements  in  it. 

I  know  of  few  plants  where  routine  factory  work  is  a  suffi- 
cient career,  but  I  see  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be.  Doctors 
look  forward  cheerfully  to  going  on  being  doctors.     Lawyers 


414  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

have  no  difficulty  in  finding  their  Hfe  work  in  the  law.  Other 
professions  are  satisfying  to  those  who  follow  them,  and  yet 
such  is  the  nature  of  factory  work  at  present  that  it  savors  a 
bit  of  the  desire  to  perpetuate  class  distinction  to  suggest  that 
factory  workers  content  themselves  with  the  prospects  of  con- 
tinuing as  factory  workers.  Some  wicked  agitator  has  suggested 
that  employers  appropriate  the  motto  of  a  big  New  York  dairy- 
man, "Milk  from  contented  cows,"  as  suitable  to  the  aim  of 
managers  to  keep  workers  permanently  on  the  job.  The  way  to 
make  that  aim  worthy  is  to  arrange  conditions  so  that  factory 
work  is  in  itself  an  agreeable  career. 

For  one  thing  there  must  be  definite  standards  of  promotion 
and  pay  increases.  A  Detroit  factory  discovered  a  workman  in 
its  employ  who  had  gone  five  years  on  one  rate  of  pay.  A  Pitts- 
burgh plant  till  recently  was  paying  three  different  rates  of  pay 
for  the  same  operation  under  three  different  names  in  different 
departments. 

There  should  be  variety  of  interest,  too.  The  modern  sub- 
division of  labor  makes  a  given  task  a  drudgery,  monotonous 
and  intellectually  stagnant,  but  it  brings  with  it  the  possibility 
of  frequent  transfers  so  that,  with  proper  instruction,  a  man  can 
follow  all  the  steps  of  a  process  without  great  cost  to  the  plant. 
The  Ford  Motor  Co.  asks  each  employee  to  fill  out  a  card  stat- 
ing the  jobs  to  which  he  would  like  to  be  transferred  when  it 
is  possible.  A  company  in  Rochester  encourages  employees  to 
fit  themselves  for  more  responsible  positions  and  higher  earning 
power  by  reimbursing  for  their  outlay  those  who  complete 
courses  of  study.  The  subject  of  industrial  education  again 
hinges  upon  our  discussion  at  this  point,  but  it  is  too  big  to  deal 
with  here. 

No  work  is  a  career,  of  course,  unless  it  is  possible  through 
it  to  provide  for  old  age.  Those  plants  which  succeed  in  estab- 
lishing permanent  working  forces  have  the  inescapable  responsi- 
bility of  providing  for  the  future  of  all  workmen.  Group  insur- 
ance and  other  forms  of  life  insurance  are  good,  but  not  suffi- 
cient. They  do  nothing  for  the  workman  between  his  retirement 
and  his  death,  and  serve  but  poorly  even  to  compose  his  fears 
for  his  family  after  his  death,  because  nearly  every  penny  of  in- 
dustrial insurance  now  goes  merely  to  pay  funeral  expenses. 

A  pension  system  helps  to  bridge  the  gap  between  super- 
annuation and  death.     Any  kind  of  old-age  pension  is  good,  but 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        415 

we  should  lean,  surely,  toward  the  kind  that  appears  least  to  be 
a  charity  on  the  part  of  the  company.  The  income  from  an  in- 
vestment to  which  the  workman  has  contributed  and  which  the 
company  has  helped  him  to  accumulate  is  not  charity,  and  has 
the  further  merit  of  leaving  an  inheritance  to  the  family.  Any 
profit-sharing  scheme  like  the  Proctor  &  Gamble  plan,  which 
gives  the  employee  a  form  of  stock  ownership,  has  this  merit. 
The  most  carefully  thought  out  scheme  is  that  of  the  Baker 
Manufacturing  Co.,  of  Evansville,  Wis.,  which  provides  for  a 
15-year  pension  after  retirement  on  a  partial  resale  to  the  com- 
pany of  the  stock  secured  out  of  profits  shared. 

These  are  ambitious  plans.  The  program  outlined  above  is 
a  particular  scheme  comprising  nearly  all  of  the  proposals  suc- 
cessfully introduced  for  the  attempted  solution  of  the  labor 
problem.  Altogether  they  may  not  solve  it,  but  incomplete  as 
they  may  be,  they  are  sufficiently  aspiring  and  they  are  all  that 
managers  can  undertake   on  their  own   responsibility. 

Even  if  all  of  these  proposals  are  applicable  to  most  plants, 
no  factory  that  has  so  far  failed  to  inagurate  most  of  these 
things  can  hope  immediately  to  get  them  all  going.  It  will  have 
to  go  slowly  for  two  reasons,  especially.  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
impossible  to  apply  any  new  scheme  to  all  employees  at  once. 
This  is  particularly  true,  if,  for  the  expedient  to  be  successful, 
it  must  be  understood  and  believed  in  by  the  employees.  In  such 
a  case  it  must  begin  with  only  those  who  are  ready  for  it.  When 
the  Jeffrey  Manufacturing  Co.,  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  began  its 
building  and  loan  association  seven  years  ago,  only  18  workers 
out  of  500  who  at  first  expressed  interest  were  sufficiently  im- 
pressed to  make  an  actual  beginning.  Now,  over  a  thousand  be- 
long to  the  association  and  they  have  over  a  half  million  dollars 
invested.  Most  good  enterprises  with  workmen  have  begun  in 
this  small  way,  and  no  employer  should  be  discouraged  by  a 
meager  start  if  the  principle  at  stake  is  important. 

But  it  is  even  harder  to  make  an  industrial  program  succeed 
promptly,  owing  to  the  difficulty  that  a  plant  has  in  establishing 
its  character  with  its  workmen.  It  is  so  even  with  individuals. 
We  don't  easily  believe  in  the  permanence  of  good  intentions. 
We  intensely  desire  to  find  friends  in  whom  we  can  trust  and 
who  will  be  as  hopeful  and  patient  with  us  10  years  from  now 
as  to-day,  but  experience  makes  us  cautious.  Once  we  are  con- 
vinced of  the  unalterable  integrity  of  a  friend,  there  is  no  gift 
of  adoration  too  extravagant  to  lay  at  his  feet. 


4i6  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Workmen  have  been  disappointed  too  often  to  be  anything 
but  skeptical.  They  have  tested  too  many  mere  paper  plans  for 
their  welfare  to  place  any  easy  reliance  upon  new  ones.  But 
when  a  management,  by  uudcvialing  honesty,  determination,  and 
good  spirit,  carries  through  during  a  term  of  years  a  program 
of  employees'  betterment,  it  can  not  fail  to  win  their  conhdence 
and  friendship. 

HOW  TO  REDUCE  LABOR  TURNOVERS 

1.  Preliminary    measures: 

(.a)    Attempt    to   learn   true   cost   of   turnover   in   your   plant   in   order    to 

know  how   much  you  can  aliord   to  spend   to   eliminate  it. 
(b)    Keep  adequate  records  as  means  of  analysis  of  sources  and  causes 
of    turnover — 
(i)    Historical  and  statistical  record  separate  for  each  employee,  in- 
cluding   date    of    employing    or    transferring,    rates,    earnings, 
bonuses,    defective    work,    complaints    by    or    against    man,    ab- 
sence,   tardiness,    periodic    certihcation    of    foremen,    date    of 
quilling   and   reasons. 

(2)  Turnover  by  Uepartments,  by  causes,  by  weeks  and  months  and 

years,   and   by   classes   of   skill. 

(3)  High  and  low   earnings   by   departments. 
(.4)    Detective   work  by   depaniueius. 

{,$)    Absenteeism   and    tardiness    by    departments. 

2.  Fundamental   remedies: 

(.a>    Hire   the  right   men   for   the  jobs — 

(i)  Work  up  good  application  list  which  is  a  "prospect  file"  by 
vigilant  search  ol  sources  ot  supply,  by  industrial  census  ot 
your  vicinity,  by  courteous  and  hospitable  treatment  of  ap- 
plicants at  all  times,  and  by  getting  a  good  name  tor  your 
factory   even   from   men    who   have   quit   you. 

(2)  Using   your   present   work   force   as  a   "prospect   file,"   cooperate 

witn  agencies  for  industrial  education,  supplementing  them 
with  apprenticeship  training,  to  build  a  system  of  promo- 
tion   and    transfer. 

(3)  Secure   time   to   examine   new   applicants   thoroughly   by    receiv- 

ing advance  notice  of  need  and  by  using  adequate  assistance 
m   employment   department. 

(4)  Hire    III    accordance    with    written    specifications    for    each   job, 

prepared  at   leisure,   and   after   due   consultation  and  criticism. 

(5)  Prepare   a  definite  scheme   of    direct   examination   for   each   type 

of  work,  using  as  much  of  the  character-reading  methods  as 
your   experience   approves. 

(6)  Examine   physically    with    view    to   general    fitness,    to    suitability 

for   specified  job,  and   to   need  of   later  upbuilding. 

(7)  Visit   homes   of    desired   applicants. 

{S)    Check   up    records    of   previous    employments. 
(,9)    Hire   only  those   who   can   earn   an  adequate   wage, 
(b)    Pay  an  adequate   wage — 

(ij  Study  cost  of  and  facilities  for  decent  living  for  each  work- 
man  and   use   results   in  setting   base   rates. 

(2)  Give   special   study    to   cases    of    inetticient    workmen,    to    see   if 

money   troubles   are  affecting   them. 

(3)  Centralize    and    pay    off    at    discount,    debts    of    overburdened 

workmen. 

(4)  Promote   mutual   aid   association. 

(5)  Establish   legal   aid   bureau. 
(0)    Pay   weekly. 

(7)    Discourage   alcoholism. 

*  This  scheme  is  intended  to  be  complete  and  is  therefore  impossible  of 
universal  application   in   toto. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  417 

(8)  Instruct  in  proper  use  of  income. 

(9)  Encourage  thrift   and   home   building. 

(10)    Where    special    causes    for    increased    living    cost    obtain,    attack 
them,  as  by  cooperative  stores,  housing  measures,  etc. 

(c)  Provide   steady  work — 

(i)    Give   pieceworkers   steady  flow   of  material   during  the   day,   by 
proper    scheduling    system. 

(2)  Regularize   production   throughout   the  year   to   minimize   lay-offs 

and   shut-downs. 

(3)  Abolish    the    annual    physical    inventory,    in    favor    of   perpetual 

inventory    with    continuous   checks. 

(4)  Make   repairs   promptly  and  provide  a  sufficient  reserve  supply 

of    tools. 

(d)  Don't  fire  hastily^ 

(i)    Check    up    foremen    whose    departments    show    high    turnover 
records   through   men's   quitting. 

(2)  Don't  let   foremen   discharge  at  all. 

(3)  Give   unsatisfactory   men   at   least   one   chance    through   transfer. 

(4)  Establish    employment    committee   to    review   cases    of    discharge 

where  men  appeal. 

(5)  Establish   foremen's  club   to   study   ways   of   getting  along  with 

men. 

(6)  Interview,  before  paying  off,  men  who  quit  voluntarily. 
Supplementary   remedies: 

(a)  Start   new  men    right— 

(i)    Make    clearly    understood    agreement    as    to    starting    pay    and 
schedule   of  advances. 

(2)  Introduce  new  men  to  bosses,   to   fellow  workers,   and  to  physi- 

cal surroundings,  and  acquaint  with  rules  and  facilities  of 
plant. 

(3)  Instruct   men   thoroughly   in   new  task. 

(4)  Advance  money  or  meal  tickets  to  beginners  short  of  funds. 

(5)  Help  beginners  speedily  to  get  on  piece  or  bonus  rates. 

(b)  Promote    physical    efficiency — 

(1)  Establish    physical    department. 

(2)  Examine    all    workmen    periodically   and    provide    machinery    for 

following  up  those  found  to  be   defective. 

(3)  Provide   adequate   light,   heat,   and   ventilation. 

(4)  Reduce    noise,    dirt,    and   noxious   odors   and   fumes, 
(s)  Purify  oils,   waste,   and   other  supplies. 

(6)  Purify  drinking  water. 

(7)  Provide   sanitary   lockers,    wash    rooms,   and    toilets. 

(8)  Insist  upon  good  teeth  and  good  eyes  by  using,  at  least  on  part 

time,   the  services   of  a  dentist  and  an   oculist. 

(9)  Have   nurses  or   doctors  visit   those  kept  home  by   illness. 

(10)  Provide    mid-workday    meals    at    plant. 

(11)  Provide   good   tools   and   fatigue   minimizing   equipment. 

(12)  Shorten    work   hours    while   securing   fair   output. 

(13)  Provide   at   least   three   rest   periods   during  the   day. 

(14)  Arrange  for  yearly  vacations  with  pay  for  all   employees.      This 

can    be    on    the    basis    of   an    efficiency    record    or    punctuality 
record. 
(is)    Promote   athletics. 

(c)  Foster   good   habits — 

(i)  Investigate   causes   of   unexcused  absence. 

(2)  Fix  strict  penalties  for  tardiness  and  unexcused  absence. 

(3)  Bonus  regular  attendance. 

(4)  Establish    pay    system    that    encourages    and    rewards    accuracy, 

high  output,  and  punctuality. 

(d)  Give  all  employees  a  hearing — 

(i)    Hear  complaints   at  all  times,  no  matter  how  put  forward. 

(2)  Hold    regular   shop    meetings   by   departments   and    by   divisions 

to  hear  men's  ideas. 

(3)  Establish  system   for  considering  written  suggestions  from  men; 

rewarding  with  commendation,  prizes,  or  promotion,  all 
thought  worthy,  and  acknowledging  all  such  suggestions 
without   exception. 


4i8  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

(4)  Encourage  all  forms  of  self-directed  organization,  whether  of 
athletic,  social,  or  cooperative  enterprises — provided  such  or- 
ganization is  not  subject  to  orders  from  persons  outside  of 
your  plant   and  contrary  to   its  interests. 

(e)  Make   work   in   your   plant   a  sufficient   career — 

(i)  Establish  system  for  granting  unasked-for  pay  increases  as  de- 
served. 

(2)  Discover    ambitions    of    men    for    future    transfers    and    promo- 

tions. 

(3)  Help    train    men    to    new   tasks. 

(4)  Transfer  with   some   liberality. 

(5)  Encourage    men    to    improve    general   education    by    reimbursing 

for   outlay  on  courses  of  study  as  completed. 

(f)  Provide    for    future    of    all    workmen — 

(i)    Purchase    group   insurance    for   all   workmen. 

(2)  Pension    disabled   or   superannuated   employees. 

(3)  Share  profits   on   some   form   of  stock-sharing  basis,   possibly   in 

lieu    of    pension    scheme. 
4.      Provocative    remedies: 

(a)  Fire    when    other   methods    clearly    fail — 
(i)    Those   with   chronic   social   diseases. 

(2)  Those   whose  morals   menace  the  high  standards   of   fello\.    em- 

ployees. 

(3)  Those   who   persist   in   agitation. 

(4)  Those  who  will  not  quit  drinking. 

(b)  Submit  all  such  discharges  to  appeal  committee  on  which  employees 

are   represented. 


KEEPING  MEN  AT  THEIR  JOBS ' 

Five  years  ago  the  Firestone  Tire  &  Rubber  Co.,  Akron, 
Ohio,  was  afflicted  with  every  labor  problem  that  confronts 
modern  industry.  There  was  an  astounding  labor  turnover. 
The  men  who  left  the  company's  employ  averaged  between  20 
and  30  per  cent  monthly.  Absentees  from  work  caused  figures  of 
15  to  20  per  cent  each  30  days.  Accidents  injured  4  per  cent  of 
the  entire  force  every  month.  And  the  damage  to  machinery 
wrought  by  new  and  ignorant  workers,  the  defect  of  product 
caused  by  masses  of  untrained  and  unskilled  men,  the  accident 
compensation  amounting  to  exorbitant  figures,  and  the  unreason- 
able cost  of  the  employment  department  were  problems  much 
like  those  most  employers  encounter  now. 

In  1912,  Robert  E.  Lee,  factory  superintendent,  appeared  be- 
fore the  officers  of  the  company  and  asked  for  a  clubhouse  for 
the  workers,  explaining  the  need  for  a  common  meeting  place 
where  the  men  could  mingle,  bathe,  play,  read  and  become  more 
or  less  a  body  of  friendly  individuals.  He  had  difficulty  securing 
the  swimming  pool  without  the  clubhouse.  The  idea  was  too 
new.  It  was  a  period  when  employers,  struggling  to  perfect 
their  products   and   plants,   overlooked  the  human   element  and 

»  By  A.   Sinsheimer.      Automobile.      36:524-8.     March  8,    19 17. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  419 

felt  that  it  was  something  apart  from  the  industry.  Last  year 
the  company  built  the  clubhouse  at  a  cost  of  $350,000 — around  the 
swimming  pool.  This  year  it  voted  to  give  Mr.  Lee  $1,000,000 
to  spend  on  the  welfare  of  the  workers  as  he  sees  fit.  All  of 
which  proves  that  he  has  accomplished  a  change  of  thought  in 
the  administrative  headquarters  and  has  convinced  them  of  the 
soundness  of  his  plans. 

The  company  has  met  with  a  remarkable  success.  It  has  de- 
creased labor  turnover,  reduced  accidents,  lowered  the  number 
of  daily  absentees,  and  increased  the  contentment  and  productive 
capacity  of  its  workers,  besides  obtaining  all  the  other  benefits 
which  accompany  such  results.  It  has  discovered  the  recipe  that 
makes  improved  industrial  relations  between  employer  and  em- 
ployee. It  has  learned  the  ingredients  of  that  recipe  and  their 
correct  proportions.  It  is  using  a  goodly  measure  of  ideals 
mixed  with  a  like  amount  of  practical  action  which  usually  pro- 
duces results  where  the  human  element  is  involved. 

To  begin  with,  Mr.  Lee  believes  that  every  man  in  the  factory 
is  his  equal  in  rights,  and  that  low  wages,  overwork,  long  hours, 
injustice  and  unhealthy  working  conditions  are  not  the  means  to 
a  maximum  production  of  a  high  quality  of  product.  On  this 
philosophy  he  has  erected  his  system  for  sound  industrial  rela- 
tions— a  system  that  is  neither  entirely  a  matter  of  practicability, 
nor  wholly  a  structure  of  ideals  but  rather  one,  carefully  and 
thoughtfully,  built  of  practical  ideals. 

Regulating  Discharge  of  Workers 

For  example,  Mr.  Lee  observed  that  many  men  were  dis- 
charged by  foremen  because  of  petty  spite,  ignorant  authority  or 
jealousy.  That  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  clear  instance  of  injustice. 
It  did  not  conform  with  his  principles.  He  took  the  authority  of 
discharge  from  foremen  and  placed  it  with  department  man- 
agers. Here,  too,  he  found  the  same  evils.  Men  were  dis- 
charged because  of  personal  enmity  and  for  other  than  business 
reasons.  Again,  he  moved  the  right  of  discharge  higher.  This 
time  that  right  was  vested  in  just  one  man — himself — and  to-day 
no  one  among  the  more  than  8000  Firestone  factory  employees 
can  be  discharged  except  by  the  factory  superintendent.  This, 
of  course,  was  a  move  prompted  by  the  man's  ideals.  Here  are 
the  results : 

When  the  foremen  had  the  right  of  discharge,  between  ninety 


420  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

and  100  men  were  released  each  week.  When  the  right  was 
given  only  to  department  managers  those  figures  were  reduced 
to  twenty-five  men  per  week.  Since  Mr.  Lee  has  taken  the  mat- 
ter of  discharge  upon  himself,  a  period  of  lo  weeks,  five  men 
have  been  discharged  in  all. 

Objections  were  made  to  the  plan  in  which  it  was  claimed  that 
the  procedure  would  weaken  discipline,  and  that  though  there 
might  be  an  inherent  antagonism  between  foremen  and  workers, 
the  very  word  foremen  implied  "first  men,"  right  of  hiring  and 
firing  and  power  of  authority.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Lee 
has  found  that  no  weakened  discipline  has  replaced  the  inherent 
antagonism  and  that  instead,  better  workmen,  more  efficient 
foremen  and  a  powerful  co-operative  spirit  has  been  the  result. 
Foremen,  of  course,  still  retain  some  authority.  They  can,  at  all 
times,  take  up  subordination  or  inefficiency  with  the  department 
managers  or  Mr.  Lee,  and  this  power,  they  find,  is  sufficient  to 
maintain  the  necessary  discipline. 

Probably  the  clearest  description  of  Firestone  operations  is  to 
say  that  the  factory  superintendent  always  puts  himself  on  a 
level  with  the  workers.  When  they  require  aid  they  come  to 
him.  If  there  is  a  personal  quarrel  he  usually  is  the  referee.  If 
they  need  financial  help  he  extends  it.  Within  the  last  3  years 
he  has  loaned  $30,000  to  the  employees  without  security.  More 
than  $29,500  has  been  paid  back,  and  he  expects  to  receive  the 
balance  when  the  men  can  afford  to  pay  it. 

Cashing  in  on  Loyalty 

Recently  he  walked  out  of  the  factory  and  found  two  em- 
ployees engaged  in  a  loud  quarrel  on  the  street.  He  took  them 
into  his  office.  One  owed  the  other  50  cents  and  the  creditor 
had  taken  it  upon  himself  to  seize  the  debtor's  coat  until  pay- 
ment was  made.    Mr.  Lee  questioned  the  debtor: 

"Do  you  owe  him  any  money?  " 

"Sure,  I  owe  him  50  cents,  but  I  won't  have  it  until  pay-day 
and  it  is  cold.     I  need  my  coat." 

The  superintendent  turned,  smiling,  to  the  creditor,  and  call- 
ing him  by  name — he  knows  the  majority  of  the  men  by  their 
first  names — said : 

"Well,  John,  this  man  is  cold.  He  needs  his  coat.  Will  you 
give  it  to  him?  " 

John  refused  to  part  with   the  coat  until    he    received  the 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  421 

money.  Mr.  Lee  gave  him  the  50  cents.  The  debtor  drew  a 
pencil  from  his  pocket  and  commenced  to  write  an  order  on  his 
wages  for  the  amount. 

"No,"  said  his  employer,  "you  can  stop  in  here  and  pay  me 
when  you  want  to." 

The  workers  left,  each  satisfied.  A  little  thing,  this  may 
seem,  but — the  debtor  was  overheard  to  remark  later  that  he 
"would  fight  for  this  company  if  they  asked  me  to."  Which  im- 
plies that  the  little  deed  involving  the  insignificant  sum  of  50 
cents  had  created  a  loyalty  in  an  employee,  which  might  be  es- 
timated at  a  worth  many  times  its  cost. 

However,  there  are  matters,  other  than  these  httle  ones,  that 
come  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Lee.  There  is  the  manage- 
ment of  the  factory,  the  clubhouse,  the  park  where  Firestone 
workers  may  purchase  homes  at  cost,  the  insurance  plan,  and 
the  profit-sharing  system — all  under  his  direction  and  displaying 
in  their  methods  and  results  the  principles  on  which  he  operates. 

Reforming  the  Shift  System 

The  most  important  act  Mr.  Lee  has  performed  is  undoubtedly 
his  radical  change  of  factory  operation.  About  36  months  ago, 
he  observed,  with  dissatisfaction,  the  day  and  night  shifts  by 
which  the  men  worked  for  2  weeks  by  day  and  then  2  weeks  by 
night,  in  about  the  same  way  as  the  majority  of  the  automobile 
and  tire  factories  now  operate.  The  plan  appeared  injurious. 
He  could  not  understand  how  a  man  who  passed  2  weeks  at 
night  work  and  the  following  2  weeks  at  day  labor  could  be  a 
healthy,  happy  and  contented  worker.  Working  by  day  and  then 
changing  to  work  by  night,  he  felt,  was  certain  to  injure  the 
worker's  habits,  produce  restless  sleep,  harm  the  health  and  con- 
sequently ruin  his  ability  as  a  workman.  Besides,  the  men  who 
drifted  into  Akron  soon  learned  to  dislike  the  work  and  de- 
parted for  more  congenial  localities. 

This  is  the  situation  as  improved : 

1.  An  8-hour  day  was  adopted. 

2.  Piece  work  pay  was  increased  to  provide  the  same  wages 
as  with  the  9-hour  day. 

3.  A  priority  rule  was  put  into  effect  and  the  day  shift  made 
permanent. 

This  last  was  the  most  important  step. 


422  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Sixty  per  cent  of  the  entire  force,  picking  them  by  their 
length  of  service,  Avas  made  then  into  the  day  shift  on  a  per- 
manent basis.  The  remainder  was  placed  in  a  permanent  night 
force.  As  soon  as  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the  day  shift,  or  the 
demand  came  for  additional  workers,  the  men  with  the  longest 
service  record  in  the  night  shift  were  transferred  to  the  day 
organization.  Once  a  man  was  made  a  member  of  the  day  force 
he  was  assured  that  his  transfer  was  permanent. 

The  result  was  amazing.  In  the  first  place,  the  Firestone 
company  has  expanded  to  such  a  degree  within  the  past  few 
j'ears  that  all  of  the  men  who  were  with  the  company  2  years 
ago  are  now  on  the  day  shift.  The  employment  office  has  been 
besieged  by  men  seeking  employment  where  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity to  secure  steady  day  work.  The  labor  turnover  which 
was  20  per  cent  monthly  in  1913,  dropped  to  6  per  cent  in  1914 
and  to  less  than  2  per  cent  in  1915.  It  has  risen  slightly  in  the 
last  year  because  of  the  increase  of  new  men.  The  organization 
was  composed  of  less  than  5000  men  a  year  ago  and  it  is  now  a 
force  of  more  than  8000.  The  accidents  which  were  injuring  4 
per  cent  of  the  men  per  month  have  reached  the  point  where  less 
than  0.08  per  cent  of  the  workers  come  to  harm,  and  this  despite 
an  increase  of  100  per  cent  in  the  number  of  employes. 

The  present  turnover  is  still  less  than  2  per  cent  among  the 
60  per  cent  of  the  men  in  the  day  force.  It  has  increased  only 
among  the  night  force,  which  is  a  sort  of  crucible  to  eliminate 
drifters  and  floaters  and  laggards. 

85  Per  Cent  Glass  Factory  Walls 

In  addition  a  medical  and  dental  department  was  installed 
and  the  new  factory  buildings  erected  in  which  the  wall  space 
is  85  per  cent  glass.  A  few  years  ago,  it  was  no  uncommon 
matter  for  a  large  factory  to  suffer  the  loss  of  ten  men  yearly  in 
every  1000  through  death  either  by  ordinary  illness  or  by  accident. 
On  which  basis,  Firestone,  with  its  4400  men  would  have  lost 
forty-five  men  per  year.  In  the  last  3  years,  the  company  has 
only  lost  ten  men,  seven  of  whom  were  killed  by  a  dangerous 
railroad  crossing  near  the  factory.  This  record  Mr.  Lee  at- 
tributes to  the  considerable  and  unusual  amount  of  window 
space,  the  health  and  happiness  of  the  men,  produced  by  the 
permanent  day  work,  the  use  of  the  swimming  pool  and  general 
sanitation. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  423 

Firestone  is  very  solicitous  of  the  health  of  the  individual. 
Recently,  a  worker  who  had  always  been  an  excellent  producer 
was  noticed  to  be  behind  his  usual  record.  He  was  sent  to  the 
factory  physician,  who  reported  him  suffering  from  a  heart 
lesion,  due  to  the  work  of  building  up  tires,  at  which  he  had 
been  engaged,  being  too  strenuous.  He  was  quickly  transferred 
to  lighter  work,  given  medical  treatment  and  soon  regained  his 
usual  working  speed.  The  dental  clinic  saves  many  times  its 
cost.  Formerly,  when  a  worker  suffered  from  tooth-ache,  it 
meant  a  loss  of  a  day  both  to  the  company  and  the  individual. 
Now  he  is  sent  to  the  clinic  where  15  or  20  minutes  suffices  to  re- 
lieve the  pain  and  allows  the  man  to  continue  his  work. 

The  average  wage  throughout  the  factory  is  $4.30  per  day  and 
ranges  from  the  minimum  of  $2.75  to  $6.50. 

Developing  Firestone  Park 

Six  years  ago,  Akron  had  a  population  of  65,000.  To-day  it 
has  more  than  130,000  within  its  boundaries,  of  whom  51,000  are 
in  the  rubber  industry.  The  vast  increase  has  caused  evil  hous- 
ing conditions,  forced  many  to  sleep  and  live  in  unhealthy  sur- 
roundings. To  overcome  this  condition  so  far  as  was  possible, 
the  company  purchased  a  plat,  called  it  Firestone  Park,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  improve  it  and  erect  homes  at  reasonable  purchase 
rates  for  its  employees. 

The  allotment  is  2400  feet  from  the  Firestone  factory.  It  is  in 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  sections  of  the  city  where  the  air  is  dry 
and  clear  and  the  ground  is  sufficientlj-  high  to  afford  a  view  of 
the  surrounding  country  and  to  insure  healthy  living  conditions. 

The  entire  plat  allows  for  the  construction  of  approximately 
900  homes  and  the  improvements  will,  in  all,  total  an  expenditure 
of  $650,000,  which  includes  sewers,  storm  drains,  water,  gas,  elec- 
tric lights,  sidewalks  and  paved  streets. 

In  the  center  of  the  plat  the  city  school  board  has  secured 
large  grounds  for  the  public  school  and  near  it  will  be  a  16-acre 
park  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  property  owners  and  their  children. 
Plenty  of  trees  and  shrubbery  has  been  added.  Over  200  houses 
are  under  process  of  construction  and  more  than  100  others  have 
been  occupied.  Since  873  lots  have  been  purchased,  the  company 
has  decided  to  add  more  territory  and  will  extend  the  boundaries 
to  include  space  for  another  1300  lots. 


424  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

The  present  plat  of  220  acres  was  purchased  at  $1,200  per 
acre.  There  are  four  lots  to  each  acre  deducting  for  improve- 
ment space,  so  that  each  lot  costs  $300  and  with  $625  added  for 
improvements  makes  a  total  of  $925,  which  is  $25  more  than  the 
Firestone  employees  pay  for  them.  The  company  has  donated 
the  property  for  the  public  school,  the  park  and  the  several 
churches  which  are  to  be  erected. 

Houses  Sold  at  Cost 

The  workers  purchase  the  lots  or  houses  by  a  payment  of  5 
per  cent  with  their  order  and  make  monthly  payments  of  i  per 
cent,  out  of  which  the  company  pays  interest  on  the  investment, 
insurance  and  taxes.  The  houses  are  erected  by  a  real  estate 
company  formed  by  the  Firestone  concern  as  a  subsidiary  cor- 
poration, if  the  workers  so  desire,  and  arc  sold  to  them  at  prices 
ranging  between  $2,200  and  $3,000,  which  arc  based  on  actual 
cost.  Any  persons  other  than  Firestone  employees  desiring  to 
make  purchases  are  allowed  to  do  so,  but  must  pay  10  per  cent 
and  more  and  also  have  to  pay  10  per  cent  down  wath  their  pur- 
chase. 

An  allowance  of  6  per  cent  is  made  on  the  house  if  the  work- 
ers want  to  assume  the  cost  of  insurance.  There  is  no  assess- 
ment made  on  lots  or  houses  for  improvements  since  this  is  all 
estimated  in  the  monthly  payments. 

The  enterprise  is  costing  Firestone  approximately  $1,500,000, 
but  it  is  believed  that  sales  to  employees  and  others  and  the  in- 
terest and  the  profit  derived  from  sales  to  outsiders,  will  make 
the  transaction  an  even  break  when  completed.  Thus  many  of 
the  workers  will  own  their  homes,  live  healthy,  care-free  lives,  be 
in  a  position  where  they  will  not  care  to  leave  the  company's 
employ,  and  the  cost  to  the  company  will  amount  to  practically 
nothing. 

The  Profit-Sharing  Plan 

A  few  weeks  ago,  the  company  gave  a  dinner  to  its  workers 
and  announced  a  new  profit-sharing  plan  whereby  employees 
could  secure  the  Firestone  common  stock  by  payment  of  $100  per 
share,  this  price  being  maintained  to  March  i,  191 7.  Since  the 
stock  lists  at  $140  to  $150  at  this  time,  the  act  was  virtually    a 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  423 

gift  of  the  difiference  on  each  share  to  the  purchasers.  Under 
the  plan  employees  can  buy  shares  in  proportion  to  the  length  of 
continuous  service  as  follows : 

Service.  Shares. 

Less   than    6    months i 

6   months  and  less  than    i   year 2 

1  year  and   less   than   2   years 3 

2  years  and  less  than  3  years 4 

3  years  and  less  than  4  years 6 

4  years  and  less  than  5  years 8 

More   than    5    years 10 

The  stock  may  be  purchased  for  cash,  part  cash,  or  part  deferred  pay- 
ments or  all  deferred  payments.  The  deferred  payments  bear  interest  at 
6  per  cent  and  are  subject  to   the  following  conditions: 

Payments  of  subscription  shall  be  weekly  installments,  paid  in  cash  or 
deducted  from  the  salary  or  wage  of  the  worker,  as  the  employee  may 
elect. 

The  minimum  payment  is  50  cents  per  week  for  1  share,  with  an  ad- 
ditional   10  cents  per  week  for  each   additional  share  subscribed 

The  minimum  payment  for  employees  who  are  paid  semi-monthly  is  $1 
each  pay-day  for  one  share  and  20  cents  per  share  each  pay-day  for  each 
additional   share   subscribed. 

Additional  payments  in  excess  of  this  minimum  may  be  made  in  any 
amounts  at  any  time  as  the  subscriber  may  elect. 

Dividends  on  the  stock  will  be  credited  to  the  subscriber's  account  as 
additional  payments.  When  the  stock  has  been  fully  paid  for,  dividends 
will  be  paid  directly  to  the  employee. 

When  through  accident,  sickness  or  other  cause  the  employee  is  un- 
able to  meet  his  payments,  he  may  apply  to  the  employees'  stock  depart- 
ment,  which   will  extend  the  time   of  payments  if  circumstances  justify. 

All  payments  are  to  be  made  to  the  employees'  stock  department  at 
the  Rubber  City  Savings  Bank,  a  bank  in  which  the  company  is  interested 
and  which  was  opened  for  the  convenience  of  its  employees. 

The  full  number  of  shares  subscribed  for  by  an  employee  remains  with 
the  company  for  a  period  of  s  years  whether  the  stock  has  been  previously 
paid  for  or  not.  If  all  payments  have  been  made  and  the  stock  is  fully 
paid  up,  it  is  then  delivered  to  the  owner.  Otherwise  it  remains  with  the 
company   until   the  amount  due  is   completed. 

Cancellations   are   made  upon   any   of   the   following  conditions: 

(a)  Request   of   the    employee. 

(b)  Failure  to  make  payments  when  due  unless  time  is  extended  by 

the   employees'   stock   department. 

(c)  Any   attempt   of    the   purchaser   to   sell   his   stock,   his   agreement 

or  any  rights  thereunder. 

(d)  Resignation  or  dismissal  of  the  employee  prior  to  the  expiration 

of    s   years,    excepting   women   who   have   been   in    the   employ 
of  the  company   2   years   or  more   and   who   leave   the   employ 
to  be  married  within  3  months  and  who,  when  married,  have 
the  privilege  of  continuing  their  payments  on  the  same  terms 
as  if  they  remained  in   the  company's  employ. 
In   the   event   of  cancellation   or   any   agreement,   the   employee   receives 
the  full   amount   of  all   payments  with   interest   at   6   per  cent   from   the   date 
upon   which  each  payment  has  been   made.     An   additional  sum   will   also  be 
paid   provided    the    market    price   of   the   stock   is    in    excess    of   the   price   at 
which  the  worker  purchased  it  upon  the  following  schedule: 
Cancellation   in   less  than    i    year — No   additional   payment. 
Cancellation  at   i   year  and  less  than   2  years — 10  per  cent  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  price  at  which  the  employee  purchased  the  stock  and  the 
market  price. 

Cancellation  at  2  years  and  less  than  3  years — 25  per  cent  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  price  at  which  the  employee  purchased  the  stock  and  the 
market  price. 


426  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Cancellation  at  3  years  and  less  than  4  years — 45  per  cent  of  the  differ- 
ence betvt-cen  the  price  at  which  the  employee  purchased  the  stock  and  the 
market  price. 

Cancellation  at  4  years  or  thereafter — 70  per  cent  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  price  at  which  the  employee  purchased  the  stock  and  the  market 
price. 

The  market  price  is  secured  by  taking  the  average  bid  price  as  quoted 
in  two  leading  Cleveland  morning  papers  on  the  Tuesday  preceding  the 
date  of  cancellation.  If  a  more  reliable  source  becomes  available,  the 
company  reserves  the  right  to  adopt  it,  and  also  reserves  the  right  to  sell 
the  stock  of  the  employee  in  the  open  market  and  to  pay  the  worker  the 
percentage   as  scheduled  above   instead  of  directly   taking  over   the  stock. 

All  stock  taken  over  is  to  be  turned  back  to  the  employees'  stock  de- 
partment to  be  thereafter  resold  to  workers  at  the  average  cost  to  the 
company. 

in  the  event  of  death  or  total  disability,  while  his  stock  agreement  is 
in  force,  the  employee  or  his  or  her  beneficiary  or  his  or  her  estate  shall 
have  the  privilege  of  continuing  payments  on  the  stock  purchase  agree- 
ment on  the  same  terms  and  conditions  as  if  the  worker  were  still  in  the 
company's  employ,  or  if  the  employee  or  beneficiary  or  estate  does  not 
elect  to  take  advantage  of  this  privilege  the  company  will  either  purchase 
or  sell  the  stock  at  market  price  and  pay  the  full  price  realized  less  any 
indebtedness  due  on  the  agreement,  to  the  employee  or  beneficiary  or 
estate. 

Holding  the  Workers 

Immediately  this  plan  was  evolved,  blanks  were  issued  in- 
forming each  worker  how  many  shares  he  was  entitled  to  pur- 
chase and  requesting  him  to  state  the  number  he  wanted.  Re- 
turns were  large.  Practically  every  worker  made  a  demand  for 
the  maximum  shares.  Many  men  are  paying  cash  in  full  and  are 
anxiously  awaiting  the  time  when  they  can  buy  more  stock.  And 
again,  the  company  has  created  a  plan  whereby  the  men  will  keep 
their  jobs,  for  no  worker  is  desirous  of  losing  the  valuable  re- 
turns to  be  derived  from  the  stock — and  in  addition,  he  becomes 
a  more  thorough  worker,  since  he  feels  a  proprietary  interest  in 
the  company.  Of  course,  the  plan  costs  Firestone  approximately 
$40  for  every  share  taken  by  the  employees,  but  the  estimates  of 
the  cost  of  labor  turnover  make  this  a  negligible  amount  in  con- 
sideration of  the  returns. 

A  number  of  companies  have  endeavored  to  determine  just 
what  labor  turnover  costs.  One  concern  employing  18,000  men 
which  is  forced  to  employ  88,000  in  the  course  of  the  year  to 
maintain  its  organization,  estimates  that  the  minimum  cost  per 
man  is  $64,  which  means  that  that  company  is  paying  something 
like  $4,000,000  yearly  because  of  the  labor  turnover  evil.  An- 
other employer  with  a  force  of  4000  men  believes  that  his  labor 
turnover  which  is  20  per  cent  a  month  costs  him  between  $75  and 
$500  per  man  per  year,  dependent  on  the  individual.  These  fig- 
gures  are  based  upon  the  cost  of  the  huge  employment  force  it  is 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  427 

necessary  to  maintain,  the  cost  of  time  and  space  used  by  the 
employment  department,  the  cost  of  examination  and  investiga- 
tion, the  cost  of  instruction,  the  cost  of  hindered  production,  the 
cost  of  damage  to  machinery,  the  cost  of  defect  of  product  and 
the  cost  of  the  constant  discord  wrought  in  each  department  by 
the  hordes  of  men  who  come  and  go. 

Clubhouse  Pays  for  Itself 

The  ckibhouse  erected  by  the  company  at  the  expense  of 
$350,000  is  as  yet  more  or  less  of  an  experiment  and  the  com- 
pany is,  in  consequence,  unable  to  determine  the  results  and  the 
cost. 

The  institution  is  sustained  by  members  who  pay  $2  yearly 
dues  and  by  the  returns  from  the  barber  shop,  bowling  alley, 
swimming  pool  and  lunchrooms,  plus  appropriations  from  the 
company's  treasury.  After  3  months'  operation  there  are  2000 
members  who  pay  S  cents  a  game  for  bowling,  5  cents  for  the 
plunge,  which  includes  suit,  towels  and  soap,  10  cents  for  a  shave 
and  25  cents  for  each  meal.  The  cigar  stand  sells  cigars  and 
tobacco  at  a  profit  of  10  per  cent.  The  meal  costing  25  cents  is 
sold  at  actual  cost  and  is  equal  to  a  meal  costing  80  cents  at  a 
downtown  hotel.  At  present  the  club  requires  an  outlay  of 
$250,000  yearly,  the  majority  of  which  is  spent  for  food,  as  more 
than  3000  meals  are  sold  daily.  It  is  now  estimated  that  the 
clubhouse  will  cost  the  company  about  $500  a  month  over  the 
receipts,  based  on  the  existing  membership,  which  will  probably 
double  itself  within  the  next  year. 

The  company,  however,  is  using  the  dining  rooms  to  hold  its 
banquets.  These  cost  less  than  $1  a  plate  as  compared  with  $3 
a  plate  at  downtown  hotels.  In  consequence,  it  is  apparent  that, 
taking  all  factors  into  consideration,  at  the  expiration  of  12 
months,  the  clubhouse  about  pays  for  itself. 

Mr.  Lee  is  now  planning  to  utilize  a  part  of  the  $1,000,000 
voted  for  welfare  work,  for  a  comprehensive  group  insurance 
scheme  whereby  workers  will  receive  life  insurance.  Details  of 
the  plan  will  not  be  completed  for  several  months. 

These  form,  in  the  main,  Firestone  plans,  for  the  creation  of 
contented  employees  and  the  reduction  of  labor  turnover,  but  it 
has  also  engaged  in  many  minor  deeds  embodying  the  same  ideals 
and  practicability. 


428  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Office  Men  Form  Club 

Recently  twenty  members  of  the  office  force  discovered  a 
vacant  mansion  in  Akron  with  sixteen  large  and  comfortable 
rooms  and  2^2  acres  of  ground,  that  could  be  rented  for  $100  a 
month.  The  group  held  a  conference  with  the  company  officials. 
The  house  was  rented.  The  company  provided  $2,000  to  pay  for 
furnishings.  The  men  employed  as  housekeeper  a  woman  who 
had  been  in  charge  of  the  small  Firestone  restaurant,  previous  to 
the  construction  of  the  clubhouse,  and  a  man  to  act  as  a  general 
worker.  To-day  those  twenty  young  men  paying  $30  a  month 
each,  secure  good  meals,  have  excellent  living  quarters,  and  by 
their  joint  expenditure  pay  the  necessary  salaries,  rent  and  all 
other  upkeep.  Talk  to  one  of  them  about  their  "Valley  View 
Club"  home  or  about  the  Firestone  company  and  they  speak  as 
if  they  were  discussing  their  own  homes  or  fathers. 

In  fact,  the  entire  organization,  with  its  smiles,  contentment 
and  cheerfulness,  its  light  and  sanitary  shops  and  offices,  its  own 
homes,  its  clubhouse,  and  its  common  stock  interest  in  the  con- 
cern, regards  the  company  and  its  officials  far  more  as  a  huge 
family  rather  than  as  an  industry.  And  it  pays.  Of  that  there 
is  no  doubt.  The  results  display  themselves  in  the  following 
figures  which  show  just  how  three  companies  in  Akron  fared 
during  the  busiest  months  of  1916  when  each  was  striving  to  add 
to  its  organization. 

A  Company     B  Company      Firestone 

July    13.028  12,310  4400 

September     13,021  12,338  6610 

Thus  while  A  lost  seven  men  despite  eflforts  to  increase,  and  B 
added  but  twenty-eight  men,  Firestone  increased  by  2210  men. 
There  is  much  in  the  Firestone  system  worthy  of  adoption. 

REDUCING  LABOR  TURNOVER  IN  OUR 

SHOPS' 

The  problem  of  rapid  and  economical  production  has  changed 
greatly,  and  just  as  this  nation  has  grown  away  from  its  isola- 
tion and  is  now  a  part  of  the  world  family,  so  the  question  of 
shop  management  has  gone  far  beyond  the  walls  of  the  shop,  to 
which  it  was  formerly  confined. 

*  By  F.   H.   Colvin.      American   Machinist.      48:27-9.      January    3,    1918. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  429 

This  is  being  recognized  by  many  progressive  business  men, 
and  the  old  idea  that  there  was  a  distinct  Hne  between  the  shop 
and  the  living  conditions  of  the  men  who  worked  there,  is  being 
greatly  changed.  The  manning  of  shops,  the  difficulty  of  secur- 
ing and  of  keeping  men,  the  cost  of  constant  change  both  in 
delay  to  output  and  in  wear  and  tear  on  machinery,  all  have 
tended  to  force  consideration  of  the  larger  aspects  of  the  case. 

It  is  needless  to  enumerate  the  disadvantages  of  labor  turn- 
over as  every  shop  manager  knows  them  full  well,  at  least  so  far 
as  his  shop  is  concerned.  The  effect  on  the  housing  conditions 
of  a  city  and  on  the  transportation,  both  by  railway  and  trolley, 
is  not  so  often  considered.  The  means  of  avoiding  difficulties 
as  much  as  possible,  are  well  worth  careful  study,  and  generally 
speaking  this  is  fully  as  much  a  study  for  a  psychologist  as  for  a 
shop  manager. 

A  little  contemplation  of  the  case,  however,  shows  very 
clearly  how  matters  outside  the  shop  affect  not  only  the  length 
of  time  a  man  will  stay  but  the  kind  of  men  who  can  be  had, 
assuming,  of  course,  that  work  is  sufficiently  plentiful  for  men  to 
have  some  voice  in  the  matter.  A  self-respecting  man  will  not 
bring  his  family  into  a  town  or  a  neighborhood  which  does  not 
provide  decent  housing,  good  schools,  churches  and  amusements. 
Or  if  he  does,  he  will  not  remain  any  longer  than  is  necessary. 

The  Housing  Problem 

The  housing  problem  is  one  of  the  most  serious  which  con- 
fronts the  promoters  of  some  of  the  new  huge  enterprises,  such 
as  the  shipbuilding  and  other  immense  programs.  In  this  case  it 
is  the  lack  of  homes. 

The  quality  of  the  homes  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the  amount 
and  quality  of  the  labor  which  can  be  secured.  This  fact  ties  up 
the  successful  shop  or  the  successful  community  very  closely  to 
the  necessity  of  taking  an  active  interest  in  a  question  which  was 
formerly  considered  as  entirely  outside  of  the  manufacturing 
field. 

In  this  way,  what  we  formerly  termed  welfare  work  and 
looked  upon  as  a  fad  for  philanthropically  inclined  men  and 
women,  becomes  very  closely  connected  with  the  shop ;  and 
while  the  fatness  of  the  pay  envelope  still,  and  probably  always 
will,  hold  a  prominent  place  in  the  drawing  attractions  of  a  plant, 


430  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

the  question  of  the  housing  and  other  social  conditions  arc  be- 
coming more  important  factors  every  day. 

One  phase  of  this  problem  is  to  be  found  in  tlic  old  factory 
tenement  of  the  New  England  mill  towns.  Some  few  were  well 
kept  but  for  the  most  part  they  were  dilapidated  affairs,  with 
positive  ugliness  sticking  out  all  over  them.  They  were,  how- 
ever, much  more  elaborate  as  a  rule  than  the  company  houses 
built  for  miners,  and  they  were  much  more  comfortable,  as  many 
of  the  latter  were  simply  board  shacks  which  would  not  have 
been  tolerable  except  where  coal  could  be  had  almost  for  the 
asking. 

The  company  house,  like  the  company  store  is  always  under 
the  suspicion  of  the  employee,  especially  where  he  is  compelled 
to  use  either;  while  if  the  company  gives  greater  value  for  the 
money  than  can  be  obtained  from  private  owners  of  houses  or 
stores,  there  is  objection  raised  on  the  other  side.  The  company 
store,  or  its  later  development,  cooperative  buying  through  the 
aid  of  the  company's  business  organization,  is  however  much 
more  likely  to  remain  a  fixture  than  the  company  house  or  tene- 
ment, and  even  this  is  likely  to  give  way  to  community  coopera- 
tion, as  is  shown  by  action  taken  in  a  number  of  large  cities. 
Readjustment  is  made  necessary  by  the  fact  that  small  concerns 
cannot  afford  to  invest  the  necessary  capital  either  in  houses  or 
stores,  and  are  consequently  placed  at  a  great  disadvantage  in 
securing  the  workers  for  their  shops ;  there  are  other  factors  to 
consider,  such  as  the  inevitable  flotation  of  labor  from  one  plant 
to  another — due  to  lack  of  work  in  some  trade  or  to  the  natural 
desire  for  change  of  occupation,  or  friction  of  temperament  and 
similar  causes.  All  of  these  make  the  question  of  employment  a 
community  problem  as  well  as  a  problem  for  each  individual 
shop. 

Americanising  the  Alien 

While  the  housing  problem  is  of  great  importance  in  connec- 
tion with  labor  turnover,  there  is  still  another  which  cannot  be 
overlooked  without  grave  danger  for  both  present  and  future. 
This  is  the  problem  of  the  Americanization  of  foreign-born 
workers  within  our  gates ;  and  it  means  far  more  than  the  mere 
securing  of  naturalization  papers,  which  in  some  quarters,  is  all 
too  easily  accomplished.  It  means  the  instilling  of  American 
ideas  and  ideals  into  minds  which  have  been  trained  in  entirely 
different  ways. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  43^ 

These  things  imply  much  more  than  a  mere  teaching  of  the 
language  and  the  customs  of  the  country;  they  imply  more  than 
learning  to  repeat  the  constitution  or  any  set  formula,  or  to 
salute  the  flag  with  appropriate  action  and  words!  And  before 
we  can  expect  a  man  or  woman  to  be  thoroughly  loyal  to  his  or 
her  adopted  country,  we  must  see  that  they  have  something  to  be 
loyal  to:  That  it  represents  to  them  what  it  does,  or  should 
represent  to  us. 

We  have  done  much  to  eliminate  the  grafting  and  thieving 
which  formerly  beset  the  immigrant  on  every  hand  from  the 
moment  he  landed  until  he  became  accustomed  to  the  ways  of 
the  country  and  of  those  whom  we  permitted  to  prey  upon  him. 
The  worst  of  this  wrong  has  gone,  but  enough  still  remains  to 
cause  a  perfectly  just  resentment  in  too  many  cases. 

Better  Offices  and  Officials  Needed 

One  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  is  to  raise  the  tone  of  the 
naturalization  offices  and  the  tone  of  the  officials  with  whom  the 
alien  must  deal.  Few  of  us  who  have  not  had  occasion  to  go  to 
these  offices,  realize  what  dingy  and  unimpressive  places  they 
are.  Tucked  away  in  old  buildings  on  a  side  street,  with  dirty 
stairs  and  smelly  atmosphere,  they  are  not  calculated  to  impress 
an  immigrant  with  the  glory  or  greatness  of  this  republic  with 
which  he  has  cast  his  lot. 

Then  he  is  too  often  met  by  surly  officials,  themselves  for- 
eigners imbued  with  their  own  importance  in  many  cases,  who 
treat  the  new-comer  as  they  would  cattle.  Names  are  called  with 
a  foreign  accent  and  the  applicant  jeered  at  or  thrust  aside  if  he 
does  not  understand  at  once.  The  spirit  of  kindliness  is  entirely 
lacking,  and  this  is  a  place  where  it  would  not  only  be  most 
welcome  but  would  add  appreciably  to  the  immigrant's  respect 
for  the  new  country. 

First  impressions  remain  with  us  for  years  and  many  an  im- 
migrant has  been  embittered  by  his  treatment  in  little  things ;  so 
much  so  as  to  require  years  to  make  him  really  get  the  true 
spirit  of  the  country.  Particular  care  should  be  taken  in  the 
selection  of  the  men  and  women  who  deal  with  the  foreigner, 
and  careful  attention  also  should  be  paid  to  the  location,  furnish- 
ings and  general  conduct  of  the  offices  in  which  they  are  handled. 
•Elaborateness  is  unnecessary  and  out  of  place.  But  simple,  clean 
and   wholesome   surroundings,    together   with   kindly   and   sym- 


0,2,2  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

pathetic   treatment,   will   go   a    long    way    toward    securing   the 
respect  and  loyalty  which  is  needed  always. 

A  Square  Deal  Makes  for  Loyalty 

This  fair  treatment  must  extend  bejond  the  official,  however, 
and  into  every  dealing  with  the  immigrant.  The  employer  must 
not  take  advantage  of  his  ignorance  of  the  ways  of  the  country, 
but  give  him  a  square  deal.  The  loyalty  which  just  and  kindly 
treatment  engenders  will  well  repay  the  eflfort  in  nearly  every 
case,  even  without  the  additional  satisfaction  of  knowing  we  have 
done  the  right  thing.  We  must  not  forget  that  men  look  upon 
employers  as  a  class  by  themselves  and  judge  the  whole  class  by 
the  treatment  they  receive  from  their  particular  employer ;  thus 
one  unfair  employer  can  cause  much  disturbance  in  a  city  where 
the  majority  are  giving  fair  treatment,  and  thus  it  becomes  to  the 
interest  of  the  rest  to  see  that  the  black  sheep  is  brought  within 
the  fold. 

It  must  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  all  the  unfair  treat- 
ment comes  from  the  employer.  In  too  many  cases  the  men  in 
the  shop,  either  individually  or  as  a  group,  band  together  to  make 
it  unpleasant  for  the  outsider,  entirely  forgetting  the  spirit  of 
brotherhood  of  which  they  often  talk  very  fluently.  In  some 
cases  this  is  due  to  a  much  mistaken  notion  of  Americanism,  and 
in  others  it  is  due  to  the  foreigner  being  hired  at  less  than  the 
regular  wage,  which  in  turn  gets  back  to  the  employer.  All 
lines  of  race  prejudice  should  be  eliminated,  and  each  man 
treated  for  what  he  is  or  what  he  is  willing  to  become,  without 
regard  to  in  what  particular  spot  in  this  wide  world  he  happened 
to  be  bom.     Who  of  us  has  any  choice  in  this  matter? 

One  of  the  very  important  factors  in  Americanization  is  the 
teaching  of  the  language  of  the  country ;  it  also  adds  to  the  safety 
of  the  workers  in  the  shop  and  to  the  output  as  well,  since  in 
many  cases  both  accident  and  delay  frequently  come  from  mis- 
understandings. 

Teaching  the  Language 

This  teaching  of  the  language  is  also  a  community  problem, 
although  many  employers,  such  as  Henry  Ford,  provide  special 
schools  for  this  purpose;  but  it  is  necessary  to  teach  the  wom^n 
of  the  family,  as  they  play  a  large  part  in  the  work  of  American- 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  433 

ization,  and  this  places  it  entirely  beyond  the  problem  of  the  in- 
dividual shop,  except,  of  course,  in  communities  like  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  where  the  Cordage  Company  is  the  only  great  manufac- 
turing industry  in  the  town. 

Cleveland  is  trying  the  experiment  of  using  its  public  schools 
as  community  centers  with  this  in  mind,  and  is  centering  various 
activities  in  these  schools  for  this  purpose.  These  activities  in- 
clude cooperative  marketing  and  other  features  of  direct  interest 
to  the  women  of  the  household,  and  all  of  the  conversation  and 
instruction  are  given  in  English.  When  desired,  instructors  in 
household  economies  and  in  the  cooking  of  various  products 
which  are  new  to  the  foreigner,  visit  the  homes,  and  in  this  way 
is  established  a  bond  of  sympathy  and  confidence  with  the  house- 
wife, at  the  same  time  instructing  her  little  by  little  in  the  use  of 
the  English  language.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  work  of 
this  kind  having  its  lasting  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  newcomer, 
of  its  increasing  his  respect  for  and  loyalty  to  the  country;  and 
it  all  makes  for  greater  security  and  greater  prosperity  in  days 
to  come. 

Just  as  our  ideas  regarding  housing  and  schooling  as  a  direct 
factor  in  running  our  shops,  have  changed  materially  in  the  past 
few  years,  so  must  many  of  our  other  ideas  give  way  to  newer, 
and  we  hope  better  methods  of  running  the  shops,  for  housing 
and  schooling  are  but  part  of  the  factors  which  enter  into  the 
question  of  labor  turnover. 

The  question  of  hours  and  sanitary,  lighting  and  safety  con- 
ditions in  the  shop,  also  plays  its  part,  and  at  this  particular  time, 
when  the  country  needs  the  greatest  production  possible,  we  must 
consider  our  shops  as  part  of  the  great  national  supply  system, 
whose  first  duty  is  to  turn  out  its  maximum  product  regardless 
of  any  notions  of  our  own  as  to  just  how  it  shall  be  done.  We 
must  sink  any  former  prejudices  as  to  the  number  of  hours,  the 
payment  of  overtime  and  other  details,  just  as  the  employee  must 
make  his  union  a  secondary  matter  at  this  time.  Nothing  must 
interfere  with  the  production  of  needed  munitions  and  supplies. 

When  a  shop  finds  its  labor  turnover  is  larger  than  in  other 
shops  in  the  same  locality  it  is  time  to  begin  to  look  around  for 
the  reason,  and  the  shop  which  can  prevent  this  large  turnover, 
which  aifects  not  only  that  shop  but  the  whole  industry  and  its 
output,  has  a  great  accomplishment  to  its  credit. 

Some  of  the  attractions,  aside  from  the  questions  of  housing 


434  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

and  schooling,  are  shorter  hours,  bonus  or  dividends,  group- 
insurance  poHcies  for  all  employees,  health  insurance,  assistance 
in  buying  homes  or  Liberty  Bonds  or  both,  and  other  induce- 
ments which,  while  not  gifts,  are  a  reward  for  earnest  work  and 
attention  to  the  business  of  the  company.  And  there  can  be  no 
better  time  than  the  present  to  inaugurate  any  changes  which 
may  seem  desirable.  It  is  an  opportunity  for  both  sides  to  get 
together  in  some  equitable  sort  of  a  compromise  which  shall 
make  for  greater  production  and  better  feeling  between  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employed. 


SERVICE  FEATURES 

MAKING  THE  JOB   WORTH   WHILE  ^ 

The  Work  of  the  Employment  Manager,  Bonuses  and  Vacations 
in  Maintaining  a  Steady   Work  Force 

"All  persons  applying  for  employment  in  this  house  who  are 
turned  away  must  be  treated  so  that  they  will  go  away  wishing 
to  be  employed  here  as  much  or  more  than  when  they  applied." 
This  from  a  set  of  rules  worked  out  by  a  large  mercantile  es- 
tablishment for  the  guidance  of  those  who  interview  prospective 
employes  is  an  example  of  the  new  standards  that  are  being  set 
up  as  employers  are  coming  to  recognize  the  human  aspects  of 
the  labor  problem.  Nowhere  is  such  recognition  more  in  evi- 
dence than  in  those  establishments  where  the  employment  depart- 
ment has  been  raised  to  the  dignity  that  its  importance  demands. 

Within  the  last  few  months  I  have  had  a  chance  to  talk  with 
some  of  the  leading  employment  managers  of  the  country.  From 
them  I  have  learned  directly  of  the  new  spirit  that  has  grown  up 
wherever  the  business  of  employing  men  has  been  recognized  as 
one  of  the  major  questions  with  which  industry  has  to  deal.  I 
found  that  it  is  not  alone  because  men  are  scarce  that  some  in- 
dustrial leaders  have  taken  up  in  earnest  the  work  of  conserving 
their  working  force. 

"It's  my  job  to  keep  men  from  quitting,  that's  true,"  one  of 
them  said  to  me.  "But  it's  just  as  important  to  do  that  when 
there  are  plenty  of  men  to  be  had  as  when  you  can't  hire  one 
anywhere."  And  then  he  pointed  out  how  much  more  valuable  a 
man  is  who  had  become  familiar  with  his  surroundings.  Even 
if  the  man  in  the  street  looking  for  work  is  equally  skillful,  the 
man  on  the  job  is  the  better  man,  on  account  of  his  acquaintance 
with  the  methods  of  the  factory. 

One  of  the  tasks  of  the  modern  employment  department, 
therefore,  is  to  find  out  why  men  quit;  just  as  the  sales  depart- 
ment when  it  loses  a  customer  wants  to  know  the  reason,  or  as 

^By  John  A.   Fitch.      Survey.      40:87-9.      April   27,    1918. 


436  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

the  chief  engineer  looks  for  the  cause,  when  the  expected  power 
fails  to  develop. 

It  is  interesting  work — this  business  of  taking  your  own  tem- 
perature, so  to  speak.  Some  companies  have  found,  to  their  sur- 
prise, that  their  wages  were  too  low.  They  had  not  known  it 
until  they  began  to  count  up  the  number  who  left  because  they 
could  do  better  somewhere  else. 

Sometimes  you  find  something  altogether  new  that  you  were 
not  looking  for.  About  a  year  ago,  for  example,  a  new  man 
went  into  the  employment  department  of  a  large  corporation. 
He  was  unfamiliar  with  the  processes  in  that  particular  industry, 
and  as  he  went  over  the  plant  to  study  the  diflferent  departments 
he  found  one  where  it  seemed  to  him  the  heat  was  excessive.  He 
mentioned  it  and  everyone  else  in  the  office  laughed  at  him.  They 
told  him  that  he  was  absolutely  wrong  and  that  no  old-timer 
would  give  a  second  thought  to  the  matter.  Then  they  began  to 
keep  records  of  quits,  and  found  to  their  surprise  that  an  unduly 
high  proportion  of  men  were  leaving  that  particular  department. 
When  the  men  were  interviewed  they  complained  of  the  exces- 
sive heat.  The  old-timers  were  then  convinced  and  measures 
were  taken  to  improve  the  condition. 

It  may  seem  easy  enough  to  find  out  from  a  man  who  has 
chucked  his  job  just  why  he  did  it,  but  it  isn't.  It  is  easy  enough 
to  get  a  chance  to  interview  the  man.  He  has  to  go  through  the 
employment  department  to  get  his  pay.  But  he  does  not  always 
care  to  tell  his  real  motives.  The  employment  manager  of  a  firm 
employing  io,oco  people,  told  me  that  one  of  the  most  difficult 
problems  he  had  to  face  was  to  find  a  man  who  could  interview 
employes  who  were  quitting  and  find  out  from  them  the  cause  of 
their  dissatisfaction.  Two  men  whom  he  had  tried  in  that  posi- 
tion had  failed  and  he  was  looking  for  a  third  man.  Another 
unusually  successful  employment  manager,  who  told  me  that  he 
puts  his  best  men  on  this  job,  said  that  he  was  completely  baf- 
fled. He  could  not  find  any  single  or  intelligible  cause  for  the 
employes  quitting.    Yet  the  firm  had  a  turnover  of  lOO  per  cent. 

There  is  nothing  more  likely  to  develop  a  spirit  of  under- 
standing and  fair  dealing  than  this  practice  of  looking  for  the 
causes  of  dissatisfaction.  You  may  not  always  find  them,  but 
the  mere  looking  for  them  is  sufficient  to  give  you  a  new  and 
broader  point  of  view.  "An  employment  manager,"  one  man 
said  to  me,  "must  look  the  facts  in  the  face.    He  must  be  a  sci- 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  437 

entist.  His  work  represents  an  altogether  new  conception  of 
responsibility,  for  he  must  represent  something  more  than  the 
views  of  the  employer.  He  must  understand  the  employes  just 
as  well  as  he  does  the  employer,  and  stand  in  a  middle  position 
representing  both."  Another  employment  man  expressed  a  sim- 
ilar idea  when  he  said  to  me:  "The  business  of  an  employment 
department  is  to  understand  the  point  of  view  of  the  men  and 
interpret  it  to  the  management." 

Of  course,  most  employment  managers,  even  the  best  of  them, 
have  a  long  way  to  go  before  they  can  be  truly  representative  of 
the  men.  A  man  hired  by  the  employer  to  deal  with  the  workers 
does  not  find  it  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  get  the  point  of 
view  of  the  shop.  The  very  man  quoted  in  the  paragraph  above 
said  to  me :  "An  employment  department  that  is  on  its  job, 
won't  let  an  agitator  get  started.  Men  who  are  satisfied  won't 
listen  to  an  agitator."  I  gathered  that  he  would  consider  as  an 
agitator  anj'one  proposing  to  organize  a  union ;  and  that  he 
would  conceive  it  to  be  a  part  of  his  business  to  block  any  move- 
ment in  that  direction. 

But  what  of  that?  He  has  started  out  with  a  new  formula — 
he  is  going  to  defeat  organization  by  making  men  satisfied.  If 
he  sticks  to  that  program  with  all  the  sincerity  and  singleness  of 
purpose,  with  which  I  was  impressed  as  I  talked  with  him, 
neither  the  unions  nor  anyone  else  in  the  long  run  will  have 
much  to  criticize. 

As  employment  departments  are  developed  to  a  high  degree 
of  efficiency,  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  custom  to  keep 
tab  on  absentees,  with  a  view  to  promoting  regularity.  Every 
morning  the  foreman  of  each  department  checks  up  his  force  and 
reports  to  the  employment  department  the  names  or  numbers  of 
those  who  are  absent.  It  then  becomes  the  duty  of  members  of 
the  staff  of  the  employment  manager,  who  are  designated  for 
that  purpose,  to  make  inquiry  either  over  the  telephone  or  by 
personal  visit  at  the  home  of  the  absent  employe  to  discover  the 
cause.  This  is  done  the  same  day  that  the  absence  is  reported. 
This  inquiry  is  made  for  three  reasons :  To  maintain  a  high 
standard  of  health ;  to  correct  abuses,  and  to  overcome  the  habit 
of  irregularity. 

Wherever  the  employment  department  is  highly  developed, 
and  there  is  a  medical  department  with  a  sufficient  staff,  it  is 
customary  to  turn  the  inquiry  over  to  the  latter,  if  it  is  found 


438  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

that  the  absence  is  due  to  illness.  In  some  factories  a  force  of 
visiting  nurses  is  employed,  who  do  all  the  work  of  looking  up 
absentees.  One  method  or  the  other  is  employed  at  such  estab- 
lishments as  Sears  Roebuck  &  Company,  in  Chicago,  the  Ford 
Motor  Company,  the  Solvay  Process  Company  in  Detroit,  and 
many  others.  At  Ford's,  for  example,  as  soon  as  it  is  found  that 
an  employe  is  ill,  a  visit  from  the  nurse  follows  immediately.  If 
she  satisfies  herself  that  the  case  is  being  taken  care  of  properly, 
she  so  reports ;  if  no  doctor  has  been  called  and  she  thinks  the 
case  requires  the  advice  of  a  physician,  she  notifies  the  medical 
department  and  a  doctor  is  sent. 

Another  large  company  has  found  this  method  very  effective 
in  preventing  dissatisfaction  due  to  various  causes.  It  has  been 
discovered  frequently  that  a  man  stays  away  from  work  because 
of  resentment  over  some  minor  injustice  or  a  slighting  remark 
on  the  part  of  the  foreman.  In  such  a  case  the  man  is  asked  to 
come  back ;  some  responsible  representative  of  the  management 
takes  the  matter  up  with  the  foreman  and  the  man,  and  the 
trouble  is  straightened  out.  Thus  not  only  arc  the  services  of 
the  man  retained,  but  knowledge  is  at  once  acquired  of  a 
tendency  on  the  part  of  the  foreman  which  if  unchecked  may 
lead  to  a  great  deal  of  trouble. 

It  was  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  me  to  discover  that  in  one 
of  the  largest  firms  in  Detroit,  where  there  was  an  employment 
manager,  but  no  method  of  following  up  absentees,  they  were 
complaining  of  a  high  labor  turnover.  If  a  man  is  absent  five 
days  they  simply  assume  that  he  has  quit  and  drop  him  from  the 
payroll. 

Of  course,  it  is  found  often  enough  that  a  man  has  laid  off 
just  because  he  has  the  habit  of  irregularity.  Such  a  case  re- 
quires the  exercise  of  tact.  Indeed,  the  whole  practice  is  one 
that  can  easily  make  trouble  if  it  is  not  handled  with  considerable 
diplomacy.  I  was  deeply  interested  in  the  method  of  one  of  the 
most  successful  employment  managers  in  the  country,  as  he  ex- 
plained it  to  me.  "When  a  man  enters  the  employ  of  this  com- 
pany," he  said,  "he  is  told  that  the  company  assumes  him  to  be  a 
fair-minded  and  honorable  man  who  will  discharge  his  obliga- 
tions. The  company  has  hired  him  and  has  entered  into  a  con- 
tract to  pay  him  a  certain  amount  every  day  that  he  works.  The 
employe  on  the  other  hand  has  entered  into  a  contract  to  put  in 
a  day's  work  every  working  day.     If  he  doesn't  show  up,  the 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  439 

company  will  therefore  naturally  assume  that  he  has  met  with 
some  accident,  is  ill  or  has  met  with  some  other  misfortune,  and 
will  send  someone  around  to  see  if  the  company  can  help.  This 
makes  the  follow-up  seem  reasonable,  and  the  company  is  able 
at  once  to  take  any  action  that  may  seem  necessary." 

A  by-product  of  this  keeping  tab  on  absences,  is  the  main- 
tenance of  records  which  are  sometimes  very  valuable  in  dealing 
with  certain  causes  of  unrest.  The  company  has  a  record  of  all 
of  a  man's  lost  time.  The  advantage  of  that  was  explained  to  me 
as  follows  "A  man  thinks  he  isn't  making  money  enough.  He 
goes  in  and  makes  a  kick;  the  superintendent  can  immediately 
turn  to  the  books  and  see  if  he  has  been  working  full  time. 
Often  the  man  doesn't  realize  how  much  time  he  has  taken  oflf, 
and  the  record  shows  him  why  he  isn't  making  more  money. 
One  of  our  first-class  workmen  was  getting  forty-five  cents  an 
hour,  but  he  was  working  only  part  time,  so  he  thought  he  was 
underpaid.  We  figured  out  that  if  we  paid  him  only  thirty-three 
cents  an  hour,  and  he  worked  full  time,  he  would  make  just  as 
much  money  as  he  was  then  making.  So  we  told  him  if  he  didn't 
straighten  up  and  come  to  work  every  day,  we  would  cut  his  rate 
to  thirty-three  cents.  The  man  saw  the  point ;  he  has  been  work- 
ing regularly  ever  since." 

The  old  idea  of  securing  punctuality  was  to  enforce  it  through 
rigid  discipline.  There  were  fines  for  tardiness  and  absence,  and 
often  discharge.  The  new  idea  is  to  offer  a  reward  for  punc- 
tuality instead  of  a  definite  punishment  for  the  lack  of  it.  This 
idea  is  worked  out  in  an  interesting  way  at  the  Cloth  Craft  Shops 
of  the  Joseph  and  Feiss  Company  in  Cleveland.  Every  year  the 
plant  closes  down  for  one  week,  so  that  every  employe  gets  a 
vacation  whether  he  wants  it  or  not.  It  is  not  a  vacation  with 
pay,  but  after  working  for  the  company  for  one  year  an  employe 
is  entitled  to  a  vacation  bonus  equal  to  forty-eight  hours  work. 
This  is  due  him  if  he  has  a  perfect  attendance  record.  Every 
unexcused  absence  of  one  day  takes  eight  hours  off  his  bonus. 
A  reasonable  absence  is  not  counted  against  a  man,  but  if  he 
takes  a  day  off  just  for  fun  he  will  lose  some  of  his  vacation 
money. 

Probably  the  most  interesting  method  for  insuring  not  only 
punctuality,  but  efficiency  and  satisfactory  conduct  of  every  sort, 
is  that  followed  by  the  Ford  Motor  Company.  As  is  well  known, 
the  five  dollar  wage  at  Ford's  is  made  up  of  two  elements :  the 


440  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

daily  rate,  which  is  the  wage  proper,  and  the  difference  between 
that  and  five  dollars,  which  is  termed  profits.  It  is  the  Ford 
theory  that  a  man  is  entitled  to  his  wage,  if  he  is  kept  on  the  pay- 
roll at  all,  but  that  he  is  entitled  to  his  profits  only  in  case  of  his 
adhering  very  strictly  to  the  rules  laid  down.  Therefore,  if  a 
man  grows  irregular  in  his  attendance,  after  the  cause  has  been 
ascertained  and  it  is  discovered  to  be  for  no  good  reason,  the 
company  takes  him  "off  profits."  He  is  then  given  thirty  days  in 
which  to  improve  his  record.  If  he  has  done  so  at  the  end  of 
that  time  to  such  a  marked  degree  as  .to  indicate  that  it  is  his  in- 
tention in  the  future  to  observe  the  rules  and  be  regular  in  his 
attendance,  he  is  permitted  to  draw  as  back  pay  all  of  the  accrued 
profits  which  would  have  been  paid  him  had  he  not  become  sub- 
ject to  discipline.  If,  however,  his  record  has  not  sufficiently 
improved  in  thirty  days,  the  period  of  probation  is  extended  for 
another  thirty  days.  If  he  makes  good  within  that  time,  he  re- 
ceives a  portion  of  the  accrued  profits,  but  25  per  cent  is  retained. 
When  the  try-out  runs  for  three  months,  he  gets  back  60  per 
cent  of  his  profits.  After  four  months,  he  gets  back  only  50  per 
cent.  If  it  takes  him  five  months  to  make  good,  he  gets  back 
only  25  per  cent,  and  if  after  six  months  his  record  has  not  suffi- 
ciently improved,  all  of  his  profits  are  withheld  and  he  is  auto- 
matically discharged.  It  should  be  stated  in  this  connection  that 
the  profits  are  not  retained  by  the  Ford  Motor  Company,  but  are 
put  into  a  charity  fund. 

Daily  regularity  is  not  the  only  desirable  thing.  Employers 
are  coming  to  feel  that  if  it  is  a  good  thing  to  reward  a  man  for 
working  every  day,  it  is  also  a  good  thing  to  reward  him  for 
remaining  continuously  in  the  employ  of  the  company.  This  re- 
ward is  taking  two  forms :  an  increase  in  wages  based  on  service, 
and  a  vacation  with  pay  for  a  definite  period  of  time.  This 
tendency  with  respect  to  wages  was  mentioned  in  a  preceding 
article.  It  is  interesting  and  gratifying  to  note  that  employers 
are  beginning  to  realize  that  vacations  with  pay  are  as  desirable 
for  the  shop  workers  as  for  the  office  employes,  and  so,  grad- 
ually, the  old  invidious  distinction  between  office  and  shop  is  dis- 
appearing. The  Solvay  Process  Company  gives  to  every  employe 
who  has  been  working  for  the  company  one  year,  one  week's 
vacation  with  pay.  The  practice  of  the  Joseph  Feiss  &  Com- 
pany, in  this  respect,  has  been  mentioned.  At  the' Black  Com- 
pany, manufacturing  cloaks  and    suits  in    Cleveland,   a  week's 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        441 

vacation  with  pay  is  given  after  two  seasons  of  employment. 
Sears,  Roebuck  &  Company  have  developed  the  idea  of  the  larger 
reward  for  longer  service,  and  give  one  week's  vacation  with 
pay  for  one  year's  employment,  two  weeks  after  three  years.  At 
Filene's,  in  Boston,  the  practice  is  related  directly  to  the  length 
of  service.  After  six  months  service  an  employe  is  entitled  to 
one  day  of  vacation  for  each  month  of  service,  and  this  con- 
tinues until  the  maximum  of  two  weeks  is  reached.  In  this  case 
also  the  vacation  is  with  pay. 

These  are  some  of  the  methods  that  are  being  used  by  for- 
ward-looking men  in  the  industrial  field,  to  attract  labor  by  mak- 
ing the  job  worth  while.  The  importance  of  the  movement  is  in- 
calculably great  in  a  time  when  the  successful  issue  of  war  is 
dependent  in  so  large  a  degree  upon  industrial  efficiency.  The 
government  itself  has  recognized  its  value,  and  in  the  Shipping 
Board  and  the  Ordnance  Bureau  men  are  giving  their  whole  time 
to  the  spread  of  the  new  doctrine  of  employment  management. 
It  is  a  movement  that  can  result  in  nothing  but  good  to  the 
workers,  to  employers  and  to  the  public. 

ADMINISTRATION  AND  COSTS  OF  INDUS- 
TRIAL BETTERMENT  FOR 
EMPLOYEES  * 

The  present  article  treats  of  the  methods  of  carrying  on  bet- 
terment work,  the  costs  to  the  employer,  and  the  effect  of  the 
work  on  the  efficiency  and  stability  of  the  force  in  the  different 
establishments  visited. 

Cost  to  the  Employers  of  Betterment  Activities. 

It  was  found  in  this  study  difficult  to  get  very  exact  informa- 
tion, both  on  the  costs  and  on  the  comparison  of  the  present 
conditions  with  those  prevailing  before  service  work  for  the 
employees  began.  It  was  rather  surprising  to  find  that  few  firms 
had  definite  knowledge  of  what  the  work  was  costing  them.  In 
the  majority  of  cases,  even  with  a  fairly  well  organized  depart- 
ment, no  separate  record  of  the  expenditures  was  kept,  and  in 
those  establishments  which  were   able  to  give  the  amounts  ex- 

-.7  /^''x'^-    ^-    Whitney.      U.    S.    Bureau    of    Labor    Statistics.      Mo.    Rev. 
Vol.  6,  No.   3.  p.    199-206.     March,   1918. 


442 


SELECTED   ARTICLES 


pended,  there  was  so  much  diversity  in  the  forms  of  welfare 
work  for  which  the  figures  were  given  that  it  is  difficult  to  make 
a  comparison  or  arrive  at  very   definite   conclusions   as   to   the 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  WELFARE  WORK  AND  ITS  EFFECT  UPON 
TIME  LOST  AND  STABILITY   OF  THE  FORCE, 
BY    INDUSTRIES.      • 


Industry. 


Num- 
ber of 
estab- 
lish- 
ments. 


Numlier 
of  em- 
ployees. 


Welfare  work 

administ«re<l 

by- 


Establishments 
having — 


Em- 
ployer 
alone. 


Em- 
ployer 

and 

em- 
ployees 
jointly. 


Outside 

agen- 
cies co- 
oper- 
ating. 


Establishments  reporting  as  to 
effect  of  welfare  worlt  upon— 


Wel- 

-fare 
secre- 
tary 
em- 
ploj'cd 


Time  lost. 


Im 
provo- 


No 


ch-g"-  K" 


Stability  of 
force. 


Im- 


No 
change. 


Automobiles 

Boots  and  shoes 

Chemicals  and  allied 
products 

Clothing    and    fur- 
nishings  

Electricjil  supplies. . . 

Explosives 

Fine  machines  and 
instruments 

Food  products 

Foimuries  and  ma- 
chine shops 

Gas  and  electric  light 
and  power 

Iron  and  steel 

Mining,  coal 

Mining,  other  than 
coal 

Offices 

Paper    and    paper 
goods 

Priming  and   pul> 
lishing 

Railroads,  electric. . 

Railroads,  steam 

Rubber  and  compo- 
sition goods 

Stores 

Telegraph  and  tele- 
phone  

Textiles 

Otlier  industries 


Total. 


13 

.■i 
5 

8 
15 

49 

10 

MO 

12 

12 
9 


10 
17 
10 

9 

47 

'15 
60 

57 


431 


97,683 
23,930 

13,539 

19, 498 
61,040 
36,030 

25,326 
'  17,a!S 

143,882 

«  27, 102 

213, 143 

34,807 

25,448 
13,814 

9,174 

12,769 

«),  642 

393,583 

42,847 
125,148 

■66,447 

71  221 

>  138,793 


1 

i 

3 

1 

4 
5 
2 

2 

1 

3 
10 

3 

3 

<  1,661,504 


231 


200 


154 


141 


160 


29 


136 


38 


1  Not    including    i    establishment,    not    reported. 
^  Not    including    2    establishments,    not    reported. 

5  Individual  plants  of  i  corporation  have  been  counted  as  separate  es- 
tablishments. 

*  Not   including   s    establishments,   not   reported. 

The  table  above  shows,  by  industries,  the  number  of  establishments 
scheduled  and  their  employees,  the  administration  of  the  welfare  work, 
and  its  effect  in  regard  to  the  time  lost  and  the  stability  of  the  labor  force. 

outlay  which  might  be  considered  to  be  a  reasonable  one.  The 
costs,  as  given,  vary  from  a  fraction  of  i  per  cent  to  5  per  cent 
of  the  total  annual  pay  roll.  In  those  cases  where  the  allowance 
is  as  high  as  4  and  5  per  cent,  the  costs  of  the  pension  or  group 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  443 

insurance  plans  and  the  contribution  to  the  benefit  associations 
or  the  maintenance  of  an  expensive  clubhouse  form  a  large  part 
of  the  expense.  It  seemed,  taking  into  consideration  the  scope 
of  the  work  in  relation  to  the  costs,  as  reported  by  the  different 
companies,  that  excluding  unusual  contributions  to  these  features 
a  fairly  comprehensive  program  could  be  maintained  for  about  2 
per  cent  of  the  annual  pay  roll.  Another  element  to  be  taken 
into  consideration  in  this  matter  of  costs  is  the  degree  of  par- 
ticipation of  the  employees.  Those  examples  of  welfare  which 
cost  the  firms  the  most  are  not  necessarily  the  most  successful, 
since  advantages  are  appreciated  by  most  people  in  measure  as 
they  give  to  them,  both  of  money  and  effort.  The  company 
which,  while  encouraging  and  aiding  such  work,  still  leaves  a 
share  in  both  the  management  and  the  expense  to  the  employee 
is  probably  nearer  to  harmonious  plant  relations  than  the  em- 
ployer who  gives  lavishly  but  administers  the  work  in  a  more  or 
less  paternalistic  spirit. 

Comparison  of  Present  Conditions  with  Those  Prevailing  Before 

Welfare  Work  Began 

The  date  of  the  beginning  of  welfare  work,  as  reported  by 
many  of  the  firms,  is  somewhat  misleading.  Many  firms  had  an 
employees'  benefit  association  long  before  any  other  work  of  this 
character  was  even  thought  of,  and  to  accept  the  dates  given  by 
these  firms  would  give  an  entirely  erroneous  idea  of  the  length 
of  time  over  which  the  movement  extends.  It  is  safe  to  say,  that 
with  the  exception  of  a  comparatively  few  of  these  establish- 
ments, the  major  part  of  the  progress  along  these  lines  would  ex- 
tend over  only  the  last  ID  or  12  years.  The  emergency  hospital 
work,  for  example,  has  been  introduced  or  extended  in  many  of 
the  hazardous  industries  since  the  passage  of  the  various  State 
workmen's  compensation  laws.  The  work  along  the  lines  of 
safety  and  sanitation  also  has  been  much  influenced  by  these 
laws  and  has  grown  with  amazing  rapidity  in  the  last  few  years. 
The  increase  in  the  number  of  firms  providing  a  pension  system 
for  their  employees  has  been  very  marked  in  the  last  seven  years, 
and  group  insurance  has  developed  entirely  since  191 1. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  so  much  of  this  work  is  comparatively 
recent,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that,  owing  to  the  abnormal  labor 
conditions  of  the  past  three  years,  it  was  very  difficult  to  obtain 


444  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

from  the  companies  a  comparison  of  present  conditions  with 
those  prevaiUng  before  welfare  work  was  undertaken.  The  ex- 
tent to  which  the  output  is  affected  by  the  welfare  work  is  diffi- 
cult to  determine,  both  because  of  the  present  unusual  labor 
conditions  and  the  fact  that  few  companies  had  made  any  study 
of  this  point.  A  few  firms,  however,  gave  it  as  their  opinion 
that  the  output  had  been  increased  by  it,  although  several  of 
these  stated  that  this  improvement  was  only  in  part  due  to  the 
welfare  work.  Quite  a  number  stated  that  their  increased  output 
was  due  to  a  reduction  in  the  working  hours,  a  form  of  welfare 
which  has  not  been  given  special  consideration  in  this  report. 

The  stability  of  the  force  also  has  been  much  affected  in  many 
plants  by  present  labor  conditions.  One  hundred  and  thirty-six 
of  the  establishments  scheduled  reported  an  improvement  in  this 
regard,  due  in  whole  or  in  part  to  the  betterment  activities.  In 
many  cases  this  was  more  than  a  mere  expression  of  opinion, 
since  many  employers  have,  of  late,  been  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  a  large  turnover  is  a  very  important  item  in  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction, and  have  been  seeking  to  reduce  this  turnover  by  more 
scientific  management  of  the  employment  departments  and  by  the 
introduction  of  welfare  features.  One  firm  which  had  compiled 
statistics  in  regard  to  the  reduction  in  the  turnover  had  an  in- 
crease of  13.4  per  cent  of  employees  of  more  than  two  years' 
service  in  1916  over  a  similar  group  for  1914,  due  entirely,  so  the 
management  stated,  to  their  welfare  work. 

One  hundred  and  sixty  of  the  establishments  reported  an  im- 
provement in  the  time  lost.  There  are  probably  two  reasons  for 
this:  One  is  the  work  of  the  emergency  hospitals,  which  care 
for  the  general  health  of  the  employees  and  do  much  preventive 
work,  as  well-  as  sort  out  those  most  undesirable  physically 
through  their  examinations  on  entrance;  the  other  is  the  installa- 
tion of  safety  devices  and  the  education  through  safety  lectures 
and  literature,  which  has  resulted  in  a  large  reduction  in  the 
time  lost  through  industrial  accidents. 

Even  though  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  companies  re- 
ported on  this  subject,  still  enough  have  done  so  to  prove  that 
welfare  work  does  have  an  appreciable  effect  upon  the  work  and 
health  of  the  employees.  It  would  be  reasonable  to  suppose, 
even  without  the  confirmation  of  such  reports,  that  all  service 
work  which  is  carried  on  in  such  a  spirit  that  it  results  in  a  more 
contented  force,  as  well  as  a  healthier  one,  must  have  the  effect 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  445 

of  making  the  employees  more  stable  and  more  efficient.  An- 
other proof  of  this  is  found  also  in  the  attitude  toward  welfare 
work,  even  of  those  employers  who  are  least  in  sympathy  with 
it,  for  there  is  an  apparent  realization  among  tliem  that  much  of 
this  work  is  becoming  necessary  in  order  to  get  and  retain  a  de- 
sirable class  of  employees. 


Administration  of  Welfare  Work 

It  will  be  found  that  the  administration  of  this  work  is  by 
employers  alone  in  slightly  more  than  half  of  the  cases.  This 
also  probably  gives  a  somewhat  wrong  impression,  since  there 
are  necessarily  many  firms  reported  which  do  not  do  a  great  deal 
along  these  lines.  The  companies  which  do  the  least  are  those 
most  likely  to  control  entirely  such  features  as  they  have,  partly 
because  the  kinds  of  work  first  introduced  are  usually  those  which 
naturally  remain  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  firm,  and 
partly  because  it  usually  takes  some  experience  in  order  to 
realize  the  desirability  of  giving  the  employees  an  active  part  in 
the  conduct  of  the  welfare  activities. 

It  is  natural  that  the  employer  should  direct  the  work  of  the 
emergency  hospital,  although  there  are  a  number  of  cases  where 
this  has  been  given  over  to  the  benefit  association;  similarly  sev- 
eral firms  allow  their  employees  to  manage  the  lurtch  room, 
either  on  a  cooperative  basis  or  using  the  profits  for  either  the 
benefit  or  the  athletic  associations.  The  employees  quite  fre- 
quently have  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the  club  rooms  or 
houses,  in  several  instances  being  given  entire  control  of  the 
clubhouse.  In  the  matter  of  athletics  and  recreation,  more  often 
the  employer  plays  a  passive  part,  assisting  financially,  and  also 
providing  rooms  for  meeting  purposes,  gymnasiums,  and  athletic 
fields.  The  work  among  families,  except  what  is  done  in  connec- 
tion with  the  benefit  association,  is  entirely  under  the  direction 
of  the  companies  through  the  medium  of  the  welfare  secretary 
or  visiting  nurses.  The  administration  of  the  benefit  associations 
is  in  most  cases  either  mutual  or  in  the  hands  of  the  employees. 
Pension  and  group  insurance  funds,  being  in  most  cases  provided 
by  the  firms,  are  therefore  administered  by  them,  as  is  much  of 
the  educational  work,  although  frequently  members  of  the  force 
assist  in  teaching,  especially  in  the  classes  in  EngUsh  for  foreign- 
ers. 


446  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Mention  must  be  made  of  one  conspicuous  and  well-known 
example  of  cooperative  management  by  the  firm  and  its  em- 
ployees of  both  the  business  and  the  welfare  organization.  It 
has  been  the  policy  of  this  company  in  increasing  degree  through 
the  past  quarter  of  a  century  to  give  the  employees  a  share  in 
the  management.  An  association  of  the  employees  is  maintained, 
to  which  every  employee  belongs.  The  affairs  of  this  organiza- 
tion are  conducted  by  a  group  elected  by  the  employees,  and  this 
executive  body  has  the  power  to  make,  change,  or  amend  any 
rule  that  affects  the  discipline  or  working  conditions  of  the  em- 
ployees. This  can  be  carried  even  over  the  veto  of  the  manage- 
ment by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  all  the  employees.  This  association 
is  also  represented  by  four  members  out  of  eleven  on  the  board  of 
directors  of  the  corporation.  All  the  parts  of  the  welfare  or- 
ganization have  been  carefully  built  up  and  are  controlled  and 
managed  by  the  council  of  the  association  through  committees. 
The  firm  contributes  club  and  business  rooms,  certain  salaries, 
and  any  other  assistance  necessary.  The  fundamental  principle 
followed  by  the  club  in  the  management,  however,  is  that  these 
activities  shall  be  in  the  main  self-supporting  and  that  financial 
or  other  assistance  rendered  by  the  firm  shall  receive  a  direct 
return  from  the  employees  in  increased  efiiciency.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  in  this  particular  instance  the  generous  and  broad- 
minded  policy  of  the  firm  is  reflected  in  the  very  unusual  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  business  which  is  evidenced  by  the  employees 
as  a  whole. 

Cooperation  With  Outside  Agencies 

Employers  cooperate  frequently  for  the  betterment  of  their 
employers  with  certain  established  outside  agencies,  such  as  the 
local  school  boards,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  In  the 
North  and  West  the  continuation  school  work  is  often  carried 
on  beyond  the  requirements  of  the  law,  and  several  companies 
also  cooperate  with  the  public  schools  in  their  apprenticeship 
courses.  In  the  South  the  pul)lic  school  terms  are  often  extended 
many  months  each  year  through  the  contributions  and  assistance 
of  the  companies.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  also 
serve  as  the  medium  through  which  the  employers  carry  on  the 
club  work  for  employees,  as  in  the  case  of  most  railroad  com- 
panies which  use  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  since  it  is  so  well  organized 
and  seems  particularly  to  fill  their  needs.     In  a  few  other  in- 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        447 

stances  firms  have  established  their  own  branches  of  these  or- 
ganizations or  pay  membership  fees  for  junior  employees  in  the 
city  branch.  In  many  instances  either  one  or  both  of  these  or- 
ganizations, with  the  sanction  of  the  company,  conduct  meetings 
for  employees  in  the  plant.  In  one  western  city  an  association 
of  several  of  the  nursing  and  charitable  organizations  does  much 
welfare  work  for  employees  and  their  families  in  the  different 
industries.  This  association  is  supported  by  voluntary  contribu- 
tions, and  recently  all  the  principal  industries  in  the  city  except 
one  agreed  to  pay  five  cents  per  month  for  each  employee  in  re- 
turn for  which  the  association  cares  for  any  cases  to  which  the 
employer  calls  its  attention. 

Employment  of  Welfare  Secretary 

In  141  cases  it  was  found  that  a  welfare  secretary  was  em- 
ployed. Very  often  the  secretary's  sole  duties  are  supervising 
the  various  welfare  activities.  In  other  cases  the  employment 
and  welfare  departments  are  merged  into  one,  part  of  the  time 
of  the  manager  being  given  to  each,  and  in  still  other  instances 
the  doctor  or  head  nurse  assumes  these  duties  in  addition  to  the 
hospital  work.  In  quite  a  number  of  instances  the  welfare  de- 
partment employs  a  corps  of  trained  workers.  One  large  de- 
partment store  has,  in  addition  to  its  medical  department  and 
welfare  secretary,  a  number  of  college  women  engaged  in  educa- 
tional work,  physical  culture,  and  dancing,  as  well  as  supervising 
the  library  and  the  girls'  clubhouse.  Another  company  which 
does  much  community  work  has,  in  addition  to  the  head  worker, 
seven  others,  teachers,  librarian,  and  a  visiting  nurse  who  have 
kindergarten,  manual  training  and  other  classes,  many  clubs 
among  both  young  and  old,  and  also  have  much  general  super- 
vision of  the  townspeople,  of  whom  many  are  foreigners. 

The  duties  of  a  welfare  secretary  are  many  and  varied.  She 
frequently  must  oversee  the  work  of  the  emergency  hospital, 
see  that  the  food  served  in  the  lunch  room  is  kept  up  to  the 
standard,  and  that  the  kitchens  are  kept  in  a  sanitary  condition, 
and  look  after  many  of  the  details  of  sanitation ;  she  often  has 
charge  of  the  library  unless  it  is,  sufficiently  large  to  require  one 
or  more  special  attendants ;  her  office  is  so  placed  that  she  has  a 
view  of  the  rest  and  recreation  rooms,  and  in  some  plants,  of 
the  cloakrooms.     Often,  in  cases  of  special  need,  she  visits  the 


448  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

homes,  and  a  number  of  instances  were  found  where  the  firm 
had  placed  a  sum  of  money  at  her  disposal,  to  be  used  at  her 
discretion,  in  special  cases  of  illness  or  distress  among  the  em- 
ployees or  their  families.  In  the  larger  cities  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  cooperation  among  those  serving  different  firms  in  this 
capacity,  in  the  way  of  exchange  of  ideas,  and  the  visiting  nurses' 
association  also  is  utilized  often  to  help  out  in  cases  of  illness  in 
families.  The  State  factory  inspectors  suggested  to  certain  es- 
tablishments, in  one  large  city,  which  had  not  yet  taken  up  any 
work  of  this  sort,  that  they  should  allow  an  experienced  woman 
to  start  the  work  for  them.  This  woman,  feeling  that  this  par- 
ticular city  was  well  equipped  to  do  the  necessary  educational 
and  recreational  work,  did  not  include  such  work  in  her  pro- 
gram, but  confined  herself  to  the  installation  of  rest  rooms,  emer- 
gency rooms,  and  lunch  rooms.  Even  when  little  space  was 
available  she  utilized  it  until  such  time  as  the  firm  could  provide 
more.  Two  or  three  months  were  spent  in  each  plant  getting  the 
work  under  way,  when  it  was  turned  over  to  a  competent  woman, 
and  the  same  thing  begun  in  another  establishment.  This  par- 
ticular welfare  worker  was  able  to  interest  the  employers,  since 
she  believed  that  production  is  increased  and  labor  turnover  de- 
creased by  the  introduction  of  this  work. 


Conclusion 

One  might  conclude  that  all  welfare  secretaries  are  women 
since  they  have  been  cited  especially.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
this  is  true,  but  in  a  number  of  instances  this  department, 
especially  in  those  industries  employing  only  men,  is  managed 
by  a  man.  In  either  case  the  opportunity  which  is  presented  for 
a  very  broad  and  helpful  service  to  the  employees  is  very  great. 
It  is  a  difficult  position  to  fill,  since,  if  the  policy  pursued  is  not 
a  liberal  and  broadminded  one,  the  employees  may  feel  that  the 
position  is  being  used  to  their  disadvantage,  but  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  one  who  holds  it  is  gifted  with  sympathy  and  tact,  the 
possibilities  for  help  and  encouragement  of  all  kinds  are  almost 
unlimited. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  449 

MEDICAL,  HOSPITAL,  AND  SURGICAL  TREAT- 
MENT FOR  EMPLOYEES ' 

A  study  of  work  for  industrial  betterment  carried  on  by  em- 
ployers, covering  a  large  section  of  the  country  and  including 
many  firms  which  are  large  employers  of  labor,  was  made  recently 
by  agents  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Schedules  were  taken  for  431  establishments,  375  of  which,  with 
a  total  of  1,204,010  employees,  reported  some  provisions  for  giv- 
ing medical  treatment.  These  establishments  cover  a  great 
variety  of  industries,  such  as  mining,  foundries  and  machine 
shops,  manufacturing  of  iron  and  steel,  electrical  supplies,  auto- 
mobiles, furniture,  boots  and  shoes,  textiles,  and  explosives ;  also 
steam  and  electric  railroads,  telegraph  and  telephone  companies, 
electric  light  and  power  companies,  and  stores. 

The  method  of  caring  for  the  health  of  employees  along 
strictly  medical  lines  varies  greatly  with  the  needs  of  the  indus- 
try and  the  individual  ideas  of  employers.  It  ranges  from  the 
most  simple  equipment,  consisting  of  first-aid  cabinets  located  in 
the  office  or  about  the  plant,  to  the  most  elaborate  and  up-to-date 
emergency  hospitals.  These  hospitals  often  consist  of  a  suite 
of  rooms  including  doctors'  offices,  operating  rooms,  and  wards 
for  men  and  women  with  doctors  and  nurses  on  duty  throughout 
the  working  hours. 

This  work  has  grown  to  large  proportions  in  many  industries 
because  of  the  impetus  which  has  been  given  to  the  safety  move- 
ment in  the  last  few  years.  As  a  result  of  this  work  in  the 
mining  and  iron  and  steel  industries  especially,  crews  of  men  are 
instructed  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  first-aid,  and  interest 
is  stimulated  and  maintained  among  the  employees  by  means  of 
safety-first  magazines  and  bulletins  and  by  contests  among  vari- 
ous first-aid  teams  for  which  prizes  are  given.  In  some  cases 
the  day  on  which  these  contests  take  place  becomes  the  gala  day 
of  the  year  for  the  employees  and  their  families.  The  participa- 
tion in  rescue  and  first-aid  work  is  entirely  voluntary  on  the  part 
of  employees,  but  each  one  before  being  allowed  to  enter  the 
work  must  have  a  doctor's  certificate  showing  that  he  is 
physically  fit  to  undertake  it.     Four  to  six  men  are  assigned  to 

1  By  A.  L.  Whitney.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Mo.  Rev. 
Vol  5.  No.  3.  p.  59-67.      September,   1917. 


450  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

each  first-aid  crew  and  the  course  consisting  of  lectures,  demon- 
strations, and  drills  is  usually  completed  in  12  lessons.  This 
training  by  the  company  doctor  goes  on  continually,  and  many 
new  crews  are  added  each  year.  Rescue  crews  consist  of  from 
five  to  eight  men  who  are  trained  by  special  instructors  to  work 
with  rescue  helmets  in  a  room  filled  with  smoke  or  noxious 
gases.  One  company  has  a  fully  equipped  rescue  car  containing 
stretchers  and  stretcher  racks  with  a  capacity  of  from  16  to  20 
men.  There  is  also  a  small  operating  room  with  sterilizing 
equipment  and  a  supply  of  drugs  and  dressings.  In  addition  the 
car  carries  oxygen  helmets,  safety  lamps,  reels  of  life  line,  and 
two  pulmoters,  and  is  always  ready  with  the  necessary  crew  of 
men  in  case  of  emergency. 

In  the  mining  industry,  where  much  of  the  work  is  done  by 
first-aid  crews,  there  are  first-aid  boxes  at  the  different  mine 
levels  and  sometimes  emergency  and  refuge  chambers  built  of 
concrete.  One  company  reports  a  special  signal  system  in  case 
of  accidents,  to  call  the  first-aid  men.  Stretchers  and  usually 
pulmotors,  or  lung  motors,  are  supplied.  One  company  keeps 
first-aid  boxes  dry  by  use  of  electric-light  bulbs.  Pocket  first-aid 
cases  are  also  frequently  furnished  the  men. 

Of  the  375  establishments  reporting  provisions  for  medical 
treatment  no  have  first-aid  equipment;  of  these,  T]  have  first- 
aid  kits  only,  16  have  first-aid  cabinets  with  stretcher  or  cot,  12 
have  first-aid  kits  in  rest  rooms,  5  have  kit,  stretcher,  and  pul- 
motor. 

In  the  mining  and  iron  and  steel  industries,  in  foundries, 
machine  shops,  and  other  extrahazardous  industries  the  emer-. 
gency  hospital  equipment  is  often  very  elaborate.  All  the  modern 
sanitary  appliances,  such  as  faucets,  which  are  operated  by  foot 
or  knee  pressure,  glass  cabinets  for  medicines  and  instruments, 
porcelain  tables,  electric  sterilizers,  and  complete  equipment  for 
major  and  minor  operations,  are  found.  Forty-three  of  these 
establishments  employ  surgeons,  so  that  accidents,  even  though 
very  serious,  may  be  cared  for  without  the  loss  of  time  which  is 
often  so  serious  a  factor  in  surgical  cases.  In  order  that  there 
may  be  as  little  delay  as  possible  in  getting  patients  to  the  gen- 
eral hospital,  eight  establishments  which  are  not  equipped  to  care 
for  very  serious  cases  have  their  own  ambulances,  of  which  six 
are  motors. 

There  is  a  systematic  endeavor  in  most  establishments  which 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  451 

possess  good  emergency  equipment,  to  have  the  employees  report 
to  the  doctor  or  nurse  for  even  the  slightest  injuries,  and  as  a 
result  there  has  been  a  great  reduction  in  the  number  of  cases  of 
infection.  In  many  cases  severe  penalties  are  imposed  if  work- 
ers endeavor  to  remove  particles  from  the  eyes  of  fellow  work- 
men or  bind  up  cuts  or  scratches,  and  sometimes  this  is  consid- 
ered sufficient  cause  for  discharge. 

About  190  of  the  companies  visited  give  free  medical  service 
to  employees  in  addition  to  the  accident  work.  In  those  indus- 
tries in  which  accidents  are  rare  and  seldom  serious  much  has 
been  made  of  the  medical  service,  and  in  department  stores  and 
large  offices,  which  almost  uniformly  have  elaborate  emergency 
equipment,  employees  are  encouraged  to  report  to  the  hospital 
for  the  most  trivial  complaints.  In  these  establishments  often  a 
large  percentage  of  the  employees  are  treated  each  month,  while 
in  those  which  confine  themselves  to  accident  work  only,  com- 
paratively few  usually  receive  treatment.  Of  the  375  establish- 
ments, 265  have  hospital  equipment  varying  from  very  ordinary 
to  very  elaborate,  and  no  other  establishments  have  first-aid  kits 
only.  Of  these  375  establishments,  171  employ  doctors,  84  have 
doctors  on  call,  99  have  none,  and  21  do  not  report.  One 
hundred  and  twenty-two  establishments  employ  i  doctor  each,  20 
employ  2  doctors,  8  employ  3,  and  16  employ  numbers  varying 
from  4  to  12.  Two  companies  employ  14  ,and  22  doctors,  re- 
spectively, each  company  having  several  plants ;  another  employs 
43,  but  this  company  covers  a  wide  territory  and  much  family 
work  is  included.  One  company  has  a  hospital  adjacent  to  the 
plant  which  was  started  by  the  firm  but  is  now  a  public  hospital 
at  which  all  emergency  cases  are  treated.  One  other  does  not 
report  number  of  doctors.  Of  the  doctors  reported  in  the  171 
establishments,  48  are  reported  as  surgeons. 

Trained  nurses  are  employed  by  181  establishments,  165  have 
none,  and  29  do  not  report.  Of  these  181  establishments,  104 
have  one  trained  nurse  each,  thirty-nine  have  two  nurses,  twenty 
have  three,  twelve  have  four  to  eight;  the  five  employing  more 
than  eight  have  reported  for  more  than  one  plant.  In  one  es- 
tablishment the  nurses  in  the  company  hospital  serve  as  emer- 
gency nurses. 

The  management  of  one  very  large  company  employing  many 
young  women  believes  that  the  company  should  not  take  the  re- 
sponsibility of  treating  its  employees  in  any  except  the  very  sim- 


452  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

plest  first-aid  cases.  It  is  the  policy  of  this  company  to  have  a 
first-aid  cabinet  in  the  rest  room  in  charge  of  one  of  the  older 
employees,  and  if  any  sudden,  serious  case  develops  to  send  for 
a  physician.  As  far  as  possible,  however,  the  company  works 
through  the  family  physician,  believing  that  a  better  feeling  re- 
sults on  the  part  of  employees  and  their  families  if  this  is  done. 
This  company  also  believes  that  a  finely  equipped  emergency 
hospital  encourages  those  with  trifling  ailments  to  think  too  much 
of  them,  and  makes  it  too  easy  often  to  get  medicine  without 
which  in  the  end  the  employee  would  probably  be  better  off. 

The  emergency  hospital  work  is  to  a  certain  extent  allied 
with  that  of  the  benefit  association,  and  in  a  few  instances  is 
managed  by  this  association,  the  employer  giving  space  and 
equipment  and  usually  making  a  contribution  to  the  association 
funds.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  however,  the  employer  pays  for 
and  controls  the  hospital  work,  and  the  medical  work  in  connec- 
tion with  the  benefit  association  is  incidental  to  the  regular  work 
of  the  hospital. 

It  is  quite  a  general  practice  to  give  applicants  for  employ- 
ment a  more  or  less  comprehensive  physical  examination.  This 
ranges  from  a  few  general  questions  to  a  thorough  physical  test, 
of  which  complete  records  are  made  and  kept.  It  is  also  quite 
usual  for  such  establishments  to  reexamine  after  absence  from 
illness  or  other  causes.  It  is  to  be  understood  that  the  main 
purpose  of  entrance  examinations  is  to  exclude  those  who  are 
undesirables  from  the  standpoint  of,  the  employer — that  is 
usually  those  suffering  from  tuberculosis  or  other  contagious 
diseases — although  occasionally  firms  having  some  outside  work 
are  willing  to  take  tubercular  people.  In  a  very  few  instances, 
however,  valuable  assistance  is  given  by  the  medical  department 
in  helping  employees  to  correct  minor  defects  revealed  by  the 
examinations.  One  firm  employing  a  very  large  number  of  men 
gives  advice  to  applicants  who  are  rejected  because  of  defective 
physical  condition  as  to  the  correct  treatment  necessary  for  cure 
or  help  and  recommends  them  to  reliable  physicians  or  hospitals. 
Where  circumstances  warrant  the  arrangements  for  hospital  care 
are  made  by  the  health  director  of  the  company.  Only  such  ap- 
plicants are  rejected  as  are  totally  incapacitated  or  are  suffering 
from  contagious  or  infectious  diseases.  The  claim  is  made  by 
this  firm  that  by  means  of  this  advice  25  per  cent  of  the  rejected 
are  reclaimed  and  hired.    Another  place  reports  that  of  the  7  per 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  453 

cent  rejected  the  proportion  able  to  remedy  their  defects  through 
proper  attention  is  large  enough  to  reduce  the  net  rejections  to 
less  than  2  per  cent. 

Periodic  examinations  are  found  less  frequently  than  prelim- 
inery  medical  examinations.  In  occupations  which  are  subject 
to  occupational  diseases  or  in  establishments  which  handle  or 
manufacture  food  products,  periodic  examinations  are  either 
nesessary  for  compliance  with  the  State  or  municipal  law  or  are 
so  manifestly  a  requirement  of  ordinary  humanity  and  social 
protection  that  they  can  not  be  regarded  as  welfare  work.  Ex- 
aminations given  by  steam  and  electric  railroads  are  mainly  for 
sight  and  hearing,  and,  therefore,  are  more  for  the  protection  of 
the  public  than  for  the  benefit  of  the  employees.  In  the  com- 
paratively few  cases  besides  these  in  which  periodic  examinations 
are  given  general  corrective  work  is  done  or  a  change  of  work 
is  ordered  in  cases  where  it  is  found  that  employees  are  not 
physically  capable  of  doing  the  work  assigned  to  them.  This,  as 
well  as  leave  of  absence  sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without 
pay,  is  often  the  method  of  dealing  with  the  less  serious  cases. 
Employees  who  are  found  to  be  in  a  generally  rundown  or 
anemic  condition  are  frequently  given  egg  and  milk  or  malted 
milk  regularly,  and  the  results  of  this  diet  are  carefully  noted 
by  physicians  or  nurses.  Special  examinations  and  subsequent 
medical  attention  are  given  in  a  number  of  establishments  upon 
request  of  the  employee. 

Of  the  forty-nine  establishments  which  report  periodic  exam- 
inations, seventeen  have  annual  examinations  and  of  these  ten 
examine  all  employees,  one  examines  heads  of  departments  and 
assistants  annually,  the  remaining  employees  being  examined  at 
the  end  of  one  year's  service  and  not  thereafter,  and  six  do  riot 
report  the  number  examined  each  year.  Six  establishments  have 
semiannual  examinations,  and  of  these  one  examines  all 
employees,  another  all  but  the  salaried  force,  one  all  male  em- 
ployees, while  the  others  do  not  report  classes  of  employees  ex- 
amined; two  of  these  establishments  give  semiannual  dental 
examinations.  Of  the  other  periodic  examinations  reported  four 
(three  biennial  and  one  every  four  years)  are  by  railroads  and 
twenty-four  are  for  food  handlers  or  for  persons  exposed  to 
occupational  diseases,  and  vary  from  weekly  to  bimonthly  exam- 
inations. 

Nine  establishments  examine  after  absence  on  account  of  ill- 


454  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ness  or  for  other  causes  and  of  these  one  examines  every  two 
years  and  also  before  promotion  and  reemployment,  one  estab- 
lishment examines  laborers  after  one  year  of  service,  eighteen 
report  special  examinations,  in  cases  of  suspected  tuberculosis  or 
other  disease,  and  three  give  them  on  request  of  the  employees. 
Fifteen  report  definite  corrective  work  on  the  part  of  physicians 
as  a  result  of  examinations.  Four  give  egg  and  milk  or  malted  milk 
to  employees  in  poor  physical  condition.  Thirtj'-two  firms  will  pay 
the  entire  expense  of  employees  who,  after  a  reasonable  length  of 
service,  develop  tuberculosis,  but  if  the  employee  is  able  to  pay 
part  of  the  expenses  he  is  expected  to  do  so.  One  firm  main- 
tains its  own  tuberculosis  sanatorium  in  the  mountains,  to  which 
all  of  its  employees  suffering  from  this  disease  are  sent;  a  lim- 
ited number  of  employees  suffering  from  other  diseases  are  also 
cared  for  at  this  place.  Because  of  lack  of  local  facilities  for  the 
care  of  tuberculosis  another  firm  has  established  a  special  dis- 
pensary near  the  plant  for  the  use  of  employees  who  either  have 
contracted  tuberculosis  or  are  suspected  of  having  it.  These 
patients  are  under  the  constant  oversight  of  a  doctor,  and  a 
specially  trained  nurse  who  superintends  their  examination  at  the 
clinic  and  also  visits  them  in  their  homes  to  teach  the  most  mod- 
ern methods  of  prevention  and  cure.  The  most  serious  cases  are 
kept  at  the  dispensary.  In  Chicago  a  number  of  firms  are  con- 
tributors to  a  tuberculosis  sanatorium  where  employees  of  these 
firms  may  be  treated  at  much  reduced  rates;  and  in  cases  of  ne- 
cessity no  payment  at  all  is  required. 

Thirty-two  firms  send  employees  to  sanatoriums.  Two  estab- 
lishments have  a  joint  fund  given  by  employer  and  employees  for 
sanatorium  care  of  tubercular  cases.  Sixteen  companies  pay  all 
expenses,  one  pays  all  after  two  years'  service,  one  after  three 
years'  service,  and  another  pays  if  employees  are  unable  to  do  so. 
One  company  has  its  own  sanatorium  and  several  other  firms 
send  to  a  sanatorium  which  is  maintained  jointly. 

Change  of  occupation  in  cases  of  poor  physical  condition  is 
reported  in  fourteen  cases,  and  leave  of  absence  either  with  or 
without  pay  for  the  purpose  of  recuperation  is  reported  in  six 
cases.  Several  companies  have  introduced  dental  service  for 
their  employees.  One  company  having  semiannual  dental  exam- 
inations for  all  employees  has  a  suite  of  rooms  consisting  of  den- 
tists' offices,  a  sterilizing  room,  and  a  radiograph  room.  The  rooms 
are  of  white  enamel   with  porcelain  fittings,  glass-topped  tables 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  455 

and  desks,  and  faucets  operated  by  foot  pressure.  Radiographs 
are  made  in  all  cases  of  suspected  blind  abscess.  General  pro- 
phylactic work  is  done,  and  a  report  made  to  the  patient  of  the 
teeth  which  need  attention.  Very  complete  records  are  kept  of 
all  cases. 

Another  plant  employing  one  dentist  and  two  assistants  has 
had  a  dental  dispensary  in  operation  for  several  years.  The  ofifice 
is  equipped  with  two  chairs  and  two  sets  of  instruments,  so  that 
no  time  is  lost  between  patients,  and  one  set  of  instruments  is 
always  sterilized  and  ready  for  immediate  use.  All  employees  in 
need  of  immediate  attention  are  cared  for,  but  only  those  who 
have  been  in  the  company's  employ  for  more  than  six  months 
are  entitled  to  receive  extensive  treatment.  Nearly  all  kinds  of 
dental  work  are  done  at  no  expense  to  the  employees.  This  work 
costs  the  employer  a  little  more  than  $4  a  year  per  employee. 
Here,  as  in  several  other  establishments,  toothbrushes  and 
powder  are  sold  at  cost.  Still  another  place  which  provides  gen- 
eral surgical  work  gives  prophylactic  treatment  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  teeth  and  also  treats  pyorrhea.  Others  do  regular 
dental  work  but  charge  for  the  cost  of  materials  only.  In  one 
establishment,  while  the  work  is  done  on  the  company's  time,  the 
charge  to  the  employee  is  the  actual  cost  of  the  work  to  the 
company. 

There  are  a  few  instances  of  employers  providing  the  services 
of  an  ear,  nose,  and  throat  specialist  or  of  an  oculist  who  ex- 
amines eyes  free  and  furnishes  glasses  at  cost.  Out  of  forty- 
three  department  stores  included  in  this  topic,  three  furnish 
chiropodists,  owing  to  the  prevalence  of  foot  troubles  caused  by 
the  strain  of  long  standing.  Five  companies  employ  oculists, 
nineteen  employ  dentists,  and  two  ear,  nose,  and  throat  special- 
ists. 

Visits  to  the  home  by  the  doctor  or  visiting  nurse  are  often 
of  great  value.  One  very  large  firm  has  an  efficient  method  of 
keeping  track  of  employees  who  are  out  because  of  illness. 
These  employees  are  reported  every  twelve  days  by  the  absentee 
department  and  a  special  investigation  is  conducted.  In  case  the 
employee  needs  financial  assistance,  either  for  medical  service 
or  for  the  support  of  his  family,  he  is  given  a  regular  weekly  al- 
lowance from  the  "aid-to-the-sick"  fund  which  the  company 
maintains.  Another  company  has  a  systematized  method  of 
caring  for  its  employees  who  are  absent  because  of  illness  or  in- 


456  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

jury.  Such  employees  are  required  to  notify  the  health  department 
within  twenty- four  hours.  A  trained  nurse  calls  on  the  second  day 
of  absence,  and  every  third  day  thereafter,  to  see  that  the  patient 
is  receiving  proper  medical  attention.  While  this  company  does 
not  attempt  to  do  organized  social  supervision  or  give  bedside 
care,  the  nurses  try  to  instruct  families  in  the  essentials  of 
American  standards  of  living.  Each  nurse  engaged  in  this  work 
is  assigned  to  a  district  and  is  encouraged  to  cooperate  with 
public  and  private  agencies  that  are  concerned  with  the  better- 
ment of  social  conditions.  In  this  establishment,  as  in  others 
that  employ  visiting  nurses,  automobiles  are  furnished  by  the 
company  for  the  use  of  the  nurses. 

In  several  instances  absences  are  investigated  by  the  visiting 
nurse  who  gives  advice  and  assistance,  and  in  one  case  her  report 
to  the  manager  is  the  basis  for  help  extended  by  the  company. 

Of  the  establishments  scheduled,  i66,  employing  429,871  male 
workers,  report  102,701  male  cases  of  illness  and  accident,  or  24 
per  cent  in  an  average  month,  while  90  establishments,  employ- 
ing 83,034  female  employees,  report  22,819  cases,  or  27  per  cent 
for  a  like  period.  Two  hundred  and  sixty-one  establishments, 
including  several  which  do  not  report  cases  by  sex,  with  a  total 
of  770,889  employees,  report  196,722  cases,  or  26  per  cent.  For 
the  establishments  reporting  the  per  cent  varies  in  male  cases 
from  less  than  one  to  seventy,  in  female  cases  from  less  than  one 
to  seventy-four;  in  total  male  and  female  from  less  than  one  to 
sixty-eight  per  cent.  Included  in  the  totals  are  nine  establish- 
ments showing  a  percentage  running  from  76  to  no.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  these  are  the  per  cents  that  the  number  of 
"cases"  are  of  the  number  of  employees,  and  may  or  may  not  be 
the  per  cents  that  the  number  of  employees  receiving  treatment 
are  of  the  total  number  of  employees.  This  arises  from  the  fact 
that  the  same  employees  may  have  received  treatment  at  two  or 
more  distinct  times  during  the  month,  and  each  treatment  would 
be  considered  a  "case."  It  is  also  to  be  emphasized  that  the  term 
"illness  and  accident"  as  used  here  includes  all  cases  reported  to 
the  hospital,  many  of  them  of  a  very  minor  character. 

While  these  per  cents  may  have  no  definite  value  as  showing 
the  proportion  of  employees  treated,  they  do  show  in  a  general 
way  the  great  variation  in  the  relation  between  the  number  of 
employees  and  the  services  rendered. 

For  a  company  having  a  limited  amount  of  space  and  wishing 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  457 

to  install  emergency  equipment  at  a  moderate  cost,  one  room  that 
was  equipped  at  an  approximate  cost  of  $1,000  was  almost  a 
model  of  its  kind.  The  floor  of  rubber  tiling  cost  $350.  The 
plumbing,  which  was  of  the  most  modern  type,  having  knee-pres- 
sure faucets  and  all  of  the  fittings  of  the  best  porcelain,  cost  $250. 
The  rest  of  the  equipment,  consisting  of  two  medicine  cabinets, 
an  instrument  cabinet,  a  porcelain  operating  slab,  an  electric  in- 
stantaneous heater  for  use  in  case  the  other  hot-water  supply 
should  fail,  an  electric  warming  pan,  a  sanitary  cot,  and  a  san- 
itary screen  by  which  the  cot  can  be  entirely  shut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  room,  was  furnished  at  a  cost  of  about  $400. 

A  description  of  elaborate  emergency  equipment  which  has 
been  practically  standardized  by  one  large  company  and  which 
may  be  modified  to  meet  the  needs  of  individual  plants  is  as  fol- 
lows: All  interior  woodwork  is  finished  with  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  coats  of  paint  and  enamel  to  give  a  finish  which  can  be 
easily  washed  and  kept  clean.  The  operating,  re-dressing,  and 
bath  rooms  have  a  tile  or  vitralite  wainscoting,  and  the  floors  are 
of  marble  chips  set  in  white  cement.  This  is  preferable  to  a  tile 
flooring,  as  tile  where  subject  to  rough  usage  becomes  gray  and 
porous  and  thus  more  difficult  to  keep  in  a  sanitary  condition. 
Steel  enamel  chairs  and  tables  are  used  in  preference  to  wood,  as 
they  are  more  sanitary  and  wear  better.  The  re-dressing  room 
is  used  for  the  re-dressing  of  all  cases  and  for  minor  injury  and 
medical  cases.  The  equipment  here  consists  of  a  washstand  with 
knee  or  foot  faucet  attachments,  a  foot  bath,  medicine  and  in- 
strument cabinets,  bottle  rack  for  antiseptic  solutions,  basin 
stands,  instrument  sterilizers,  dressing  carriage  tables,  chairs, 
and  nurse's  desk,  Justrite  pail,  and  the  necessary  surgical  instru- 
ments. 

The  operating  room  is  equipped  similarly  to  the  re-dressing 
room  with  the  addition  of  high-pressure  steam,  hot  and  cold 
water,  instrument  and  utensil  sterilizer.  The  wards  or  recovery 
rooms  are  equipped  with  beds,  tables,  and  chairs.  Beds  are 
furnished  with  electric  warming  blankets  and  heating  pads.  The 
X-ray  and  laboratory  room  is  used  for  diagnoses  of  fractures 
and  of  various  diseases. 

There  is  undoubtedly  much  valuable  preventive  and  curative 
work  done  through  the  agency  of  these  hospitals.  In  many  cases 
employees  who  are  too  poor  or  too  careless  to  take  steps  to  se- 
cure the  proper  treatment  for  themselves  or  who  do  not  realize 


458  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

that  such  treatment  is  necessary  are  advised  and  cared  for  in  time, 
and  much  needless  suffering  is  thereby  avoided.  If  the  work  is 
intelligently  and  conscientiously  carried  out,  and  the  tendency  to 
give  medicine  for  too  trivial  causes  is  avoided,  the  results  to  the 
employee  will  be  better  health  and  increased  earning  power  and 
to  the  employer  a  more  efficient  force  of  employees. 


LUNCH   ROOM   FOR  EMPLOYEES^ 

The  survey  made  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  in- 
cluded 431  establishments  in  a  great  variety  of  industries,  such 
as  mining,  foundries  and  machine  shops,  manufacturing  of 
iron  and  steel,  electrical  supplies,  automobiles,  furniture,  boots 
and  shoes,  textiles  and  explosives;  also  steam  and  electric 
railroads,  telegraph  and  telephone  companies,  electric  light 
and  power  companies,  and  stores.  Of  these  431  establishments, 
224  provide  lunch  rooms  for  their  employees.  Seven  of  these 
establishments  did  not  report  the  number  of  employees,  but 
for  the  217  establishments  reporting,  the  total  number  employed 
was  830,125. 

Lunch  rooms,  like  emergency  hospitals,  belong  probably 
among  the  more  essential  features  of  industrial  betterment, 
for  while  the  provision  of  recreational  facilities  of  different 
kinds  tends  to  promote  good  fellowship  and  interest  in  the 
place  of  employment,  these  facilities  do  not  have  as  direct  a 
bearing  on  the  health  of  the  workers  as  does  the  opportunity 
to  secure  a  warm  and  wholesome  meal  at  a  cost  which  puts 
it  within  reach  of  all. 

Kind  of  Service 

Restaurants,  with  waiters,  and  cafeterias  seem  to  be  about 
equally  popular,  there  being  112  of  the  former  and  96  of  the 
latter,  while  16  establishments  have  restaurants  for  the  ofifice 
force  and  oflicials  and  cafeterias  for  the  factory  workers.  The 
cafeteria  method  of  serving  seems  to  be  especially  desirable 
where  large  numbers  must  be  taken  care  of  in  a  short  space 
of  time,  as  the  two,  four,  or  six  way  cafeterias  permit  of  very 

1  By  A.  L.  Whitney.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Mo.  Rev. 
Vol.  5.  No.  6.  p.  207-15.      December,   1917. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT 


459 


rapid  service.  One  company  states  that  1,500  people  are  served 
by  this  method  in  nine  minutes  and  another  that  1,300  are 
served  in  six  minutes. 

The  following  table  shows,  by  industries,  the  number  of 
establishments  having  restaurants,  cafeterias,  and  lunch  rooms, 
the   character   of    management,    and   the   total    employees. 


ESTABLISHMENTS    HAVING    RESTAURANTS,   CAFETERIAS,   AND 
LUNCH    ROOMS,    BY    INDUSTRIES    AND    BY    CHAR- 
ACTER   OF    MANAGEMENT. 

[In  this  table  sixteen  establishments  are  shown  under  both  "restaurant"  and 
"cafeterias"  as  they  maintain  both;  and  twelve  of  the  establishments 
shown  as  furnishing  room,  coffee,  etc.,  for  employees  bringing  their  own 
lunches  also  have  restaurants  or  cafeterias.] 


*- — 

Indi:stry. 

Num- 
ber of 
estab- 
Ush- 
ments. 

Number 
of  em- 
ployees. 

Number  of  estab- 
lishments hav- 
ing restaurants 
managed  by- 

Number  of  estab- 
lishments hav- 
ing    cafeterias 
managed  by- 

Number  of 
ostabUsh- 
ments  fur- 
ishing  accom- 
modations for 
those  bringing 
lunches. 

Com- 
pany. 

Con- 
trac- 
torf. 

Em- 
ploy- 
ees. 

Com- 
pany. 

Con- 
trac- 
tors. 

Em- 
ploy- 
ees. 

Room 
only. 

Room, 

coflee, 

etc. 

Autoniobiles             ; 

7 
4 
4 
9 
5 
6 
8 
28 

7 
14 
7 
5 
7 
5 
6 
4 
41 

14 

9 

36 

93,384 
23,230 
9,446 
15,710 
51,040 
22,553 
■  1  11,665 
64,401 

124,768 

76,092 

■  10,651 

7,472 

9,666 

40,402 

35,588 

8,168 

I  116,068 

2M,538 

20,051 

1125,232 

2 
1 
3 
1 
5 
4 
3 
22 

4 
6 
4 

""2 
4 
3 
3 
9 

8 

3 

22 

1 

2 
3 

1 
8 

2 



3 



Chemicals  an,cl  allied  products 

1 

3 

1 
2 
4 

Fine  machines  and  instruments. . 

1 
...... 

j- 

1 

2 

7 

Foundries  and  machine  shops  — 
Gas,  electric  light,  and   power 

^ 

1 
3 

i 
4 
5 

1 

2 

9 

1 

6 

1 
1 
I 

1 
1 

3 

1 

1 

1 

i 

1 
1 

2' 

8 

2 

Rubber  and  composition  goods. . . 

4 

2 

29 

7 
5 
14 

1 

1 

2 

...... 

1 

3 
1 

4 

Telegraph  and  telephone  com- 

1 

3 

Otber  industries 

1 

9 

Total 

224 

3  830,125 

109 

14 

5 

98 

6 

8 

34 

29 

*  Not  including  employees  of  one  establishment,  not  reported. 
=  Not  including  employees  of  two  establishments,  not  reported. 
'  Not  including  employees  of  seven  establishments,  not  reported. 


46o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

Establishments   Having   Restaurants,   Cafeterias,    Or   Other 

Lunch  Facilities 

Of  the  224  establishments  providing  lunch  rooms,  eighteen 
maintain  them  for  only  the  office  force  and  officials,  and  some- 
times for  foremen,  while  the  remaining  206  serve  employees  of 
the  factory  as  well,  although  in  the  majority  of  cases  there  are 
separate  rooms  or  a  section  of  the  dining  room  reserved  for 
the  office  people  and  foremen.  This  does  not  seem  to  be  in- 
spired altogether  by  a  feeling  of  superiority  on  their  part,  as 
might  be  supposed,  for  a  number  of  establishments  reported  an 
unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the  factory  workers  to  eat  with 
the  office  force  and  foremen ;  in  some  cases  because  members 
of  the  office  force  are  better  dressed,  and  in  others  because 
they  feel  more  freedom  without  the  presence  of  those  under 
whom  they  work.  This  was  especially  true  in  plants  where 
many  foreigners  of  different  nationalities  were  employed,  as 
they  usually  desire  to  eat  by  themselves. 

For  181  establishments,  with  605,174  employees,  it  is  estimated 
that  the  number  using  the  lunch  rooms  daily  is  approximately 
168,000,  or  28  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  their  employees. 
These  figures  include  those  employees  who  bring  their  own 
lunches  to  the  regular  lunch  room  and  buy  nothing  and  those 
who  supplement  their  own  lunch  with  one  or  more  dishes  from 
the  counter,  as  well  as  those,  usually  the  larger  number,  who  buy 
the  entire  lunch. 

There  are  sixty-three  companies  which  provide  a  room  for 
the  use  of  those  bringing  their  own  lunches.  Twelve  of  these 
furnish  such  a  room  in  addition  to  the  regular  lunch  room  and 
therefore  are  included  in  the  total  number  of  establishments  hav- 
ing lunch  rooms.  Thirty-four  of  these  sixty-three  firms  provide 
the  room  and  tables  and  chairs  only,  but  twenty-nine,  in  addi- 
tion to  this,  supply  tea,  coffee,  or  milk  and  in  a  few  cases,  soup. 
Twelve  of  these  twenty-nine  establishments  serve  coffee  free  to 
all  who  wish  it,  one  furnishes  soup  free,  and  several  of  them 
give  tea  and  milk  as  well  as  coffee.  In  this  connection  it  might 
be  stated  that  several  companies  report  that  it  is  their  practice 
to  discourage  the  excessive  use  of  coffee. 


EMPLOYMENT  MANAGEMENT        461 


Character  of  Management 

The  majority  of  the  lunch  rooms  are  managed  directly  by  the 
companies,  but  in  twenty  cases  the  management  is  turned  over 
to  an  outsider,  the  company  supplying  space  and  generally  light, 
heat,  and  equipment  also.  In  these  cases,  too,  the  companies 
usually  supervise  the  quaHty  of  the  food  offered  and  also  limit 
prices,  although  the  food  prices  are  not  as  low  as  in  the  many  es- 
tablishments which  manage  this  work  with  no  thought  of  profit. 
In  thirteen  instances  the  companies  allow  the  employees  to  man- 
age the  restaurant.  A  few  of  these  lunch  rooms  are  run  on  a 
cooperative  basis,  but  most  of  them  make  a  small  profit  which 
is  turned  over  to  the  benefit  association  or  to  the  athletic  asso- 
ciation, the  lunch  room  usually  being  managed  by  a  committee 
of  employees  appointed  by  the  association  which  is  to  receive 
the  profits. 

General  Descriptions  of  Restaurants  and  Kitchens 

One  company,  having  both  a  large  factory  and  office  force,  has 
a  large  lunch  room  for  each.  The  one  for  the  office  employees  is 
a  very  beautiful  room  with  specially  designed  tables  and  leather 
seated  chairs.  These  specially  designed  tables,  having  concealed 
seats,  can  be  transformed,  by  a  folding  back  of  the  top,  into  com- 
fortable settees  for  use  during  gatherings  of  employees.  About 
800  are  served  here  daily.  The  main  part  of  the  service  is  cafe- 
teria, but  there  are  tables  where  service  by  waiters  can  be  had  at 
an  additional  charge  of  five  cents.  The  regular  luncheon  is 
twenty  cents,  dinner  is  twenty-five  cents,  and  a  la  carte  orders 
are  at  moderate  prices.  Employees  bringing  their  own  lunches 
must  eat  them  in  this  room.  About  1,500  members  of  the  fac- 
tory force  use  their  lunch  room,  where  a  club  luncheon,  con- 
sisting of  soup,  meat,  potatoes,  and  another  vegetable,  dessert, 
and  tea,  coffee  or  milk,  is  served  for  fifteen  cents.  The  com- 
pany aims  to  provide  employees  with  wholesome  food  at  low 
cost. 

A  new  lunch  room  which  had  been  opened  but  two  days  at 
the  time  of  the  agent's  visit  is  attractively  finished  as  to  wall 
decorations  and  lighting.  The  tables  have  vitralite  tops  and  seat 
fourteen  people  each.    It  was  the  plan  of  the  company  to  furnish 


462  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

the  service  free  and  applj'  the  twenty  cents  charged  for  the  meal 
to  the  purchase  of  the  foodstuffs.  If  at  the  end  of  a  month 
there  should  be  a  surplus  the  employees  were  to  vote  as  to 
whether  they  would  have  a  more  elaborate  meal  or  the  same 
khid  of  a  meal  at  a  lower  price.  This  factory,  which  employed 
no  women,  is  situated  in  a  locality  having  no  lunch  rooms  except 
those  in  connection  with  barrooms,  and  it  was  the  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  management  to  keep  the  men  away  from  the  saloons 
at  noontime  which  led  to  the  installation  of  the  lunch  room. 

One  establishment  manufacturing  playing  cards  has  a  beauti- 
fully equipped  cafeteria  seating  about  1,400.  This  is  located  in 
a  separate  building.  The  dining  room  has  marble-topped  tables 
with  a  raised  marble  shelf  in  the  center  of  each,  which  contains 
a  porcelain  ice-water  keg,  with  faucet.  The  glasses  and  condi- 
ments are  on  this  shelf,  and  a  wire  basket  suspended  beneath 
contains  the  silver.  The  office  employees  have  a  section  reserved 
for  them  and  are  waited  on  by  waitresses.  The  prices  are  so 
moderate  that  the  company  has  a  large  deficit  to  meet  each  year. 
Music  is  provided  each  day  during  the  luncheon  period. 

It  is,  of  course,  often  found  to  be  the  case  that  employees  go 
to  work  in  the  morning  with  little  or  no  breakfast.  Two  firms, 
each  employing  a  large  number  of  girls,  allow  them  to  go  to  the 
lunch  room  in  the  morning  for  milk  or  coffee  and  rolls.  One  of 
these  firms  grants  ten  minutes  each  morning  for  this  purpose. 

A  lunch  room  for  which  construction  and  equipment  costs 
were  given  was  built  to  seat  1,100  people  at  one  time.  The  room 
has  a  very  large  cafeteria  counter  and  small  tables  with  Carrara 
glass  tops.  The  cost  of  the  special  construction  of  the  dining 
room  and  kitchen  was  about  $5,300,  while  the  equipment,  furni- 
ture, and  fixtures  cost  approximately  $6,200.  The  lunch  room  is 
under  the  general  supervision  of  the  welfare  secretary,  but  the 
preparation  and  dispensing  of  food  are  taken  care  of  by  a  private 
caterer,  who  provides  good  substantial  food  at  a  moderate  cost 
in  consideration  of  the  company'  supplying  space,  equipment, 
light,  and  heat  for  which  no  rental  is  charged.  About  2,500 
people  use  this  lunch  room  daily. 

Many  of  the  establishments,  in  addition  to  the  attractive 
restaurants,  have  exceptionally  well  equipped  kitchens  with  all 
the  up-to-date  electric  machines  for  saving  work.  An  electric 
dish-washing  machine  through  which  24,000  pieces  could  pass  in 
an    hour   w'ith    practically   no    breakage    and    an    electric    potato 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  463 

peeler  holding  a  barrel  of  potatoes  at  a  time  are  features  of  one 
establishment.  In  almost  all  of  the  restaurants  which  serve 
large  numbers,  part  or  all  of  the  many  electric  labor-saving  de- 
vices have  been  installed.  It  was  noticeable  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  kitchens  would  pass  with  a  very  high  mark  as  to 
sanitary  conditions,  although  a  number  were  visited  which  were 
not  adequately  screened  for  flies  and  which  in  general  neatness 
left  a  good  deal  to  be  desired.  However,  these  were  in  the 
minority  and  the  general  standard  of  cleanliness  and  quality  of 
food  served  by  most  of  the  companies  was  very  good,  while 
some  were  models  of  neatness,  kind  of  equipment,  and  generally 
efficient  service. 

There  are  different  methods  of  payment  in  use  by  the  various 
companies.  One  company,  whose  charges  are  based  on  the 
amount  of  wages,  uses  tickets  of  three  colors  to  indicate  the 
three  rates  which  are  charged.  In  some  cases  metal  checks  are 
used,  while  in  others  books  of  tickets  are  sold  either  by  the 
cashier  or  by  foremen  in  the  shops.  In  the  majority  of  cases, 
however,  the  employees  pay  cash. 

Number  of  Attendants  Required 

In  several  restaurants  the  attendants  at  counters  and  tables 
are  members  of  the  regular  working  force  who  usually  receive 
their  regular  rate  of  pay  while  performing  this  service  and  their 
lunches,  their  coats  or  uniforms  being  furnished  and  laundered. 
In  one  case  the  office  errand  boys  and  apprentices  wait  on  the 
tables,  leaving  their  work  fifteen  minutes  before  the  others  and 
receiving  only  lunch  in  payment ;  in  another  case  the  girls  volunteer 
their  services  and  receive  lunch  in  return ;  and  in  still  another 
case  factory  boys  serve  in  the  dining  room  for  two  hours,  being 
paid  their  regular  factory  rate,  except  for  half  an  hour,  and  re- 
ceiving a  free  lunch  also. 

The  number  of  attendants  necessary  to  serve  an  average  of 
4,100  people  daily  is  reported  by  one  firm.  This  company  has 
four  restaurants,  a  cafeteria,  a  dining  room,  a  lunch  counter,  and 
a  grill  room.  The  cooking  for  the  four  restaurants  is  done  in 
one  kitchen,  and  the  same  quality  of  food  is  served  in  all.  Em- 
ployees are  free  to  patronize  any  one  of  them  although  the  cafe- 
teria is  the  one  generally  preferred.  Here  a  full  meal  may  be 
purchased  for  eighteen  cents,  the  average  check,  however,  being 


464  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

but  eleven  cents.  Besides  the  manager,  his  assistant,  and  the  chef 
there  are  thirteen  full-time  kitchen  and  dining-room  workers 
and  about  seventy  others  who  work  during  the  luncheon  period 
only.  Twenty  of  these  are  porters  in  the  plant  who  clear  away 
the  used  dishes. 

It  is  the  practice  of  a  number  of  companies  which  have  cafe- 
terias to  have  the  employees  carry  their  used  dishes  to  a  shelf  or 
window  which  they  pass  on  the  way  out.  In  this  way  the  amount 
of  help  needed  is  lessened  without  imposing  unduly  upon  each 
individual. 

Financial  Results  of  Operating  Restaurants 

Forty-six  of  the  companies  which  keep  the  entire  control  of 
the  lunch  rooms  have  reported  as  to  the  financial  returns  of  the 
undertaking.  In  thirty-five  cases  there  is  a  deficit  varying  with 
the  size  of  the  plant  and  the  prices  charged  for  food.  In  nine 
cases  the  restaurant  is  self-supporting,  and  only  two  of  these 
reported  a  surplus.  One  company  reports  a  deficit  of  about  $1,000 
a  month.  The  office  and  factory  employees  in  this  plant  are 
served  separately.  A  regular  dinner  is  served  the  factory  work- 
ers for  fifteen  cents,  the  a  la  carte  rates  for  the  others  being 
correspondingly  low.  The  company  feels  that  its  deficit  is  too 
great,  although,  since  the  feeling  with  the  firm  is  that  the  em- 
ployees are  entitled  to  one  good,  wholesome  meal  a  day,  a  loss  is 
expected. 

A  company  employing  about  12,000  has  several  mess  halls  in 
different  sections  of  the  plant.  These  are  located  in  separate 
frame  buildings.  The  main  mess  hall  is  in  two  sections,  one  for 
clerks  and  foremen  and  the  other  for  the  general  working  force. 
About  1,300  eat  in  this  building  daily.  The  average  price  paid 
for  a  meal  by  the  office  force  is  twenty-three  cents ;  by  the  fac- 
tory employees  twenty-one  cents.  The  colored  employees  are  fed 
in  a  separate  mess  hall  having  long,  high  tables  at  which  the  men 
stand.  About  350  meals  are  sold  here  daily  at  a  cost  to  em- 
ployees of  ten  cents  each.  Two  other  lunch  counters  together 
serve  1,400,  the  average  check  being  twenty-three  cents.  Owing 
to  the  increasing  cost  of  foodstuffs  and  the  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  company  not  to  lower  the  food  standard,  the  company  was 
paying  a  deficit  of  from  $900  to  $1,200  per  month  at  the  time  the 
schedule  was  taken. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  465 


Establishments  Serving  Free  Meals 

In  few  instances  are  meals  served  free  to  employees.  One 
insurance  company,  however,  having  several  thousand  employees, 
serves  to  each  person  in  its  employ  a  lunch,  consisting  of  soup, 
meat,  one  vegetable,  bread  and  butter,  a  choice  of  desserts,  and 
tea,  coffee,  milk,  or  buttermilk.  At  the  time  the  schedule  was 
taken  this  lunch  was  costing  the  company  about  nineteen  cents  per 
person.  This  plan  was  instituted  as  a  means  toward  greater  effi- 
ciency in  the  afternoon's  work,  since  it  was  found  that  many 
could  not,  or  at  least  did  not,  get  the  proper  luncheon.  This  is 
not  regarded  by  the  firm  as  a  gift  but  as  a  supplement  to  the 
wages,  which  are  already  as  high,  it  is  claimed,  as  those  paid  for 
similar  work  by  other  companies. 

Another  firm,  doing  a  large  mail-order  business,  gives  break- 
fast to  those  of  its  clerks  who  are  required  to  come  early  to  at- 
tend to  the  incoming  mail.  Several  give  supper  to  overtime 
workers,  and  several  others,  whose  plants  are  run  during  the  entire 
twenty- four  hours,  provide  free  coffee  at  midnight.  One  company 
giving  a  free  lunch  to  office  and  clerical  force,  has  furnished  a 
small  kitchen  and  dining  room  for  its  thirty-five  women  em- 
ployees and  provides  the  materials  from  which  the  girls  prepare 
their  own  lunches.  Another,  with  600  employees,  serve  an  a  la 
carte  lunch  to  the  men  for  10  cents  and  the  same  lunch  free  to 
the  250  women  employed. 

Boys  earning  less  than  $5  per  week  are  given  their  lunch  by 
another  company.  Still  another  gives  milk  and  soup  to  all 
juniors.  Nearly  all  of  the  banks  visited  give  a  free  lunch  to  all 
employees,  which  is  done  largely  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the 
clerks  in  the  building  at  the  noon  hour.  A  newspaper  company 
pays  a  restaurant  for  furnishing  a  lunch  consisting  of  sand- 
wiches, coffee,  cake,  pie,  and  cookies  to  from  twenty  to  thirty  of 
its  newsboys  every  night. 

Many  companies  which  charge  for  other  items  on  their  bills 
of  fare  provide  tea,  coffee,  or  milk  free.  This  is  almost  uni- 
versally done  by  the  telephone  companies,  whose  lunch-room 
food  and  service  is  always  excellent  and  provided  at  very  low 
prices.  The  employees  of  one  large  office  building  are  provided 
with  a  lunch  room  seating  about  1,300  girls  at  one  time.  The 
majority  of  them  bring  their  lunches,  supplementing  them  with 


466  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

dishes  from  the  cafeteria  counter.  Tea,  coffee,  and  milk,  the 
latter  in  unlimited  quantity,  is  provided  for  them  free  by  the 
company. 


Undesirability  of  Serving  Lunches  in  Workrooms 

Several    firms    insist   that   their   employees    shall   leave    their 
work  places  at  lunch  time  and  that  those  who  wish  to  bring  their 
own  lunches  shall  eat  them  in  the  dining  room.     In  these  cases 
it  is  usual  to  assign  a  permanent  place  at  the  table,  where  the 
lunch  may  be  left  upon  arrival.     In  only  one  instance  was  there 
evidence  of  any  objection  on  the  part  of  the  companies  to  em- 
ployees bringing  all  or  part  of  their  lunches  from  home.     This 
one  company  insisted  that  all  employees  who  wished  to  eat  in  the 
building  should  buy  their  lunches  in  the  dining  room,  although 
there  was  no  objection  offered  to  their  going  outside  for  them. 
Nine  establishments  having  restaurants  also  have  lunch  coun- 
ters in  the  plant,  either  because  of  lack  of  space  to  take  care  of 
all  the  employees,  or  for  the  use  of  those  workers  who  do  not 
consider   themselves    sufficiently   well    dressed    to   eat   with   the 
others.     For  these  same  reasons  eight  firms  provide  box  lunches 
to  be  distributed  through  the  factory  at  lunch  time,  and  several 
have  coffee  booths.     One  company  has  soup  stations  throughout 
its  large  factory,  and  another  in  addition  to  its  restaurant  has 
eight    electrically    heated    "cafemobiles,"     each     carrying     trays, 
dishes,  and  food  enough  for  300  men,  which  go  through  the  plant 
at  meal  time.     One  company,  with  about  11,000  employees,  has, 
in  addition  to  a  fine  restaurant  for  its  office  force,  five  lunch 
counters  in  the  factory,  where  about  6,000  are  served  daily  with 
sandwiches,  coffee,  and  milk.     There  are  no  tables  but  benches 
are  provided  adjacent  to  the  lunch  counter.     It  is  without  doubt 
something  of  a  problem  for  firms  which  employ  large  numbers 
of  workers  to  provide  a  place  separate  from  their  workrooms  in 
which  all  can  eat,  but  since  it  is  generally  conceded  to  be  unde- 
sirable for  employees  to  be  obliged  to  eat  at  work  places,  it  would 
seem  that  in   such    cases   either  a  very  simply   furnished   room 
might  be  provided    or  the    employees  might    be  served  in   the 
restaurant  in  shifts,  as  many  of  the  companies  find  that  this  plan 
works  satisfactorily. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  46? 


Average  Prices  Charged  For  Food 

The  prices  generally  charged  for  a  table  d'hote  meal  for 
factory  workers  vary  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  cents,  in  the 
majority  of  cases  the  charge  being  twenty  cents.  In  a  few  cases 
office  workers  pay  slightly  more.  The  a  la  carte  prices  vary,  of 
course,  greatly.  The  usual  prices  of  bread  and  butter  are  from 
two  to  five  cents;  sandwiches,  soups,  and  vegetables,  three  to 
five  cents;  meats,  eight  to  fifteen  cents;  fruits  and  desserts,  two 
to  five  cents;  tea,  coffee,  and  milk,  two  to  five  cents;  the  usual 
price  of  a  cup  of  cofifee  being  three  cents.  It  is  possible,  in  most 
of  the  cafeterias,  to  get  a  good  lunch  for  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
cents,  and  in  some  of  them  for  even  less.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind,  however,  that  the  prices  charged  for  food  as  quoted  in 
this  article  do  not  cover  the  general  rise  in  foodstuffs  in  the  last 
few  months.  They  only  serve  to  show  that  the  average  cost  of 
a  sufficiently  satisfactory  meal  was  much  below  that  of  the  aver- 
age outside  restaurant,  and  that  it  is  probable,  therefore,  that 
whatever  increase  the  employers  may  be  obliged  to  make  because 
of  the  present  high  prices  of  fuel  and  foodstuffs  will  be  in  the 
same  proportion. 

Conclusion 

There  seems  to  be  no  particular  reason  why  lunch  rooms 
should  be  installed  in  one  industry  more  than  another.  The  de- 
termining factors  seem  to  be  the  distance  from  homes ;  the  lack 
of  good  restaurants  or  the  presence  of  many  saloons  near  the 
plant;  the  desire  to  keep  employees  upon  the  premises  during 
the  lunchean  period ;  and,  perhaps  the  most  frequent  reason  of 
all,  the  wish  to  give  employees  the  proper  kind  of  food,  since 
the  tendency  with  many  workers  is  to  economize  in  this  way  to 
the  detriment  of  their  health,  strength,  and  efficiency.  Several  of 
the  companies  reported  that  the  meal  served  in  the  company 
restaurant  was  the  best  one  of  the  day  for  many  of  their  em- 
ployees. Of  the  industries  reporting  restaurants  the  iron  and 
steel  industry  and  foundries  and  machine  shops  showed  the 
smallest  proportion  of  these  facilities  for  the  general  working 
force.  Their  restaurants  are  mainly  for  the  office  force  and  for 
officials,  although  there  are  a  few  cases  where  large  numbers 
of  the  plant  men   are   served.     Steam  railroads   do   practically 


468  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

nothing  along  this  Hne,  although  the  employees  arc  sometimes 
served,  at  a  reduction,  in  the  regular  station  restaurants.  All  of 
the  telephone  companies,  most  of  the  large  offices,  and  nearly  all 
of  the  department  stores  visited  maintain  lunch  rooms. 

Only  two  of  the  companies  visited  reported  that  they  had  tried 
lunch  rooms  and  given  them  up.  Two  or  three  others  reported 
that  the  patronage  was  not  satisfactory,  but  generally  where  they 
were  found  they  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  necessary  to  the  suc- 
cessful operation  of  the  plant,  office,  or  store.  It  is  certainly 
rather  remarkable  that  a  business  of  such  magnitude  should  have 
grown  up  in  so  many  and  such  varied  industries.  That  they 
are  so  largely  run  at  a  loss  is  not  an  indication  of  poor  manage- 
ment but  rather  of  the  belief  that  the  expenditure  is  necessary 
and  that  it  is  justified  from  a  business  point  of  view  if  it  results 
in  better  health  and  greater  efficiency  for  part  or  all  of  the  work- 
ing force. 

HOW  TO  ORGANIZE  FOR  SAFETY' 

Necessity  for  Organisation 

The  Accident  Prevention  problem  involves  two  essential 
elements— Safeguarding  and  Education,  in  each  of  which  there 
is  more  or  less  detail  work.  Experience  in  the  past  decade  has 
conclusively  proven  that  safeguarding  and  educational  work  in 
any  plant  is  not  a  "one  man  job";  that  satisfactory  results  can 
be  secured  only  through  the  highest  measure  of  co-operation 
between  the  employer  and  his  employes,  and  this  only  by  means 
of  organization.  The  employer  himself  must  be  vitally  inter- 
ested in  the  work  if  he  expects  to  educate  his  men  to  share 
the  responsibility  with  him.  The  men  must  be  given  a  part  to 
perform  in  it,  if  their  interest  is  to  be  aroused  and  maintained. 
The  problem  must  touch  them  somewhere,  and  they  must  be 
brought  into  direct  relationship  with  their  employer.  It  is  only 
through  organization  that  this  is  possible,  whether  the  plant  be 
large  or  small. 

The   Work  of  an  Organisation 

The  form  and  character  of  any  organization  must  naturally 
vary  as  the  work  to  be  performed  varies;  hence  the  Work  to 
be  done  by  a  Safety  Organization  in  plants  of  all  sizes  should 

»  By  R.   W.   Campbell.     Bulletin  National   Safety  Council.     Chicago. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  469 

first  be  considered  before  determining  what  the  Form  of  or- 
ganization should  be. 

Safeguarding  and  Education  comprise  the  task  of  any 
Safety  organization,  all  of  which  naturally  requires  efficient 
planning,  direction  and  supervision. 

In  Safeguarding  there  are  involved  among  others  the 
following  essential  elements : 

I — A  study  of  hazards  incidental  to  the  use  of  equipment 
and   machinery; 

2 — Adoption  of  standards  for  practically  and  efficiently 
guarding  dangerous  places  and  machines ; 

3 — Inspection    for, — 

(a)  Need  of  safeguards 

(b)  Installation  of  safeguards 

(c)  Maintenance  of  safeguards 

(d)  Use  of  safeguards; 

4 — In  new  construction  or  replacement,  checking  in  drafting 
room   or  purchasing  department. 

In  Educational  work  there  are  involved  among  others  the 
following   essential    elements : 

I — A  study  of  hazards  incidental  to  operations ; 

2 — Adoption  of  operating  rules  covering  safe  method  of 
doing  work; 

3 — Instruction   of   new   men  as   to   hazards   and   rules; 

4 — Interesting  the  men; 

S — Providing  Bulletin  Boards,  in  the  several  departments 
for  the  posting  of  Safety  Orders,  Rules  and  Informa- 
tion. 

Form  of  Organization 

The  existing  working  force  of  every  industrial  or  trans- 
portation concern,  whether  large  or  small,  is  adaptable  vei-y 
readily  to  an  Accident  Prevention  Organization.  No  new  em- 
ployes are  required  unless  it  be  in  the  case  of  very  large  con- 
cerns in  which  it  might  be  necessary  to  select  some  person  to 
devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  inspection  work.  The  only 
differences  are  that  the  organization  does  not  need  to  be  so 
extensive  in  the  small  plant  and  that  the  duties  in  such  a  plant 


470  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

are  performed  by  different  factors  in  the  organization.  Forms 
of  organization  for  plants  of  different  sizes  are  suggested 
as    follows : 

A — For    plants     employing    over    750    men,    tlie      following 
elements  are  essential : 
I — A   Safety  Inspector.     He  should, — 
(a)    Inspect: 

(1)  For    need    of    safeguards; 

(2)  For  installation   of  safeguards ; 

(3)  For  maintenance  of   safeguards; 

(4)  For    use    of    safeguards; 

(5)  For    Unsafe    Practices; 

(6)  For  Plant  Sanitation  and  Cleanliness. 

(b)  Recommend    methods   of   safeguarding   and   design 
of    guards ; 

(c)  Have  charge  of   details   of   all    Safety  work; 

(d)  Supervise    the    holding    of    meetings    of    foremen 
and    men ; 

(e)  Receive  all  reports,  recommendations  and 
suggestions ; 

(f)  Keep  all  necessary  records. 

2 — A  Plant  Committee  of  Safety  composed  of  plant 
superintendent  or  his  assistant  (chairman),  safety 
inspector  (secretary),  and  three  or  more  high 
grade  department  superintendents,  foremen  or 
workmen,  which  should, — 

(a)  Have  general  charge  and  supervision  over 
Safety   work : 

(b)  Pass  on  all  controverted  matters: 

(c)  Gather  all  available  information  : 

(d)  Establish    standards    for    safeguards; 

(e)  Promulgate  rules  for  safe  operation  ; 

(f)  Outline   educational   campaign. 

3 — Workmen's  Committee;  consisting  of  three  to  five 
workmen,  appointed  and  changed  periodically. 
They  should, — 

(a)  Make  inspections  and  recommendations  as 
to  method  of  remedying  dangerous  conditions 
found  or  unsafe  practices  noted ; 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  471 

(b)  Investigate  accidents  in  their  several  de- 
partments ; 

(c)  Render  weekly  or  monthly  written  reports 
on  forms  provided  for  that  purpose. 

4 — Foremen.     Each  foreman  should, — 

(a)  Enforce  Safety  rules  adopted; 

(b)  Be  held  responsible  for  the  Safety  of  hi? 
men; 

(c)  Investigate  accidents  and  "near"  accidents, 
reporting  causes  and  suggestions  for  method 
of  preventing  recurrence  on  forms  provided 
for  that  purpose ; 

(d)  Make  frequent  inspections  of  his  depart- 
ment; 

(e)  Render  weekly  written  reports  on  forms 
provided   for  that  purpose. 

5 — Meetings  of  Foremen — held  monthly  to  discuss 
Safety  matters. 

6 — Workmen :  Each  workman  should  be  educated 
and  interested  in  Safety  matters.  This  work  in- 
volves,— 

(a)  Instruction  of  new  men; 

(b)  Familiarizing  of  men  with  rules ; 

(c)  Interesting  the  men  through  bulletin 
boards,  prizes,  etc.; 

(d)  Discipline. 

Where  two  or  more  plants  are  operated  by  one  company,  its 
Safety  work  may  be  coordinated  and  directed  by  a  Central  Com- 
mittee of  Safety,  consisting  of  representatives  from  each  plant, 
with  possibly  one  of  the  Executive  Ofificers  acting  as  Chairman. 
In  larger  organizations,  special  committees  may  effectively 
assist  the  central  or  plant  committee  in  solving  peculiar  or  intri- 
cate problems. 

B — Plants  employing  250  to  750  men : 
In  plants  of  this  size  the  form  of  organization  should  be 
practically  the  same  as  in  larger  plants,  except  that  the 
person  performing  the  functions  of  Safety  Inspector 
may  perform  other  duties,  preferably  along  mechanical 
lines,  in  the  labor  department,  or  as  assistant  to  the 
superintendent   or  manager. 


472  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

In   plants    of   approximately   250   to    350   employes,    the 
Central  Committee  need  not  be  so  large,  but  should 
include  at  least  the  plant  superintendent.  Safety  man 
and  one  department  superintendent  or  foreman. 
C — Plants  employing  less  than  250  men : 
The  following  elements  are  essential : 

I — Superintendent  as  head,  to  perform  the  same 
functions  as  the  Central  Committee  in  large  plants ; 
also  to  perform  part  of  the  duties  of  the  Safety 
Inspector  in  the  following  respects : 

(a)  Have  charge  of  details  of  Safety  work; 

(b)  Receive     reports,     recommendations     and 
suggestions : 

(c)  Keep  all  necessary  records. 

2 — Workmen's  Committees,  to  be  organized  and  per- 
form the  same  duties  as  required  of  similar  com- 
mittees in  large  plants. 

3 — Foremen,  to  perform  the  same  duties  as  required 
of  foremen  in  large  plants.  The  inspections  by 
foremen  will  take  the  place  of  inspections  by 
Safety  Inspector  or  Safety  man  in  larger  plants. 

4 — Meetings  of  Foremen,  held  monthly  to  discuss 
Safety  matters. 

5 — Workmen.  The  same  work  must  be  done  in  in- 
structing, educating  and  interesting  the  men  as  is 
done  in  the  large  plant. 


Conclusion 

The  foregoing  elements  of  an  organization  may  be  modified 
or  amplified  to  meet  the  needs  of  plants  of  any  size  or  peculiar 
form  of  operating  organization. 

It  has  not  been  possible  in  this  bulletin  to  elaborate  on  the 
minutiae  or  details  of  organization,  or  work  of  an  organization, 
that  may  be  applicable  to  different  forms  and  sizes  of  industrial 
and  transportation  enterprises.  Only  the  vital  and  essential 
items  have  been  enumerated. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  473 


A  GOOD  HOME  FOR  EVERY  WAGE-EARNER* 

A  good  home  for  every  wage-earner  is  possible  only  by  rec- 
ognizing that  housing  is  intimately  and  permanently  related  to  a 
number  of  large  and  difficult  problems.  Some  of  these  are  plan- 
ning problems,  some  questions  of  broad  economic  policy.  For 
example,  we  have  the  close  relation  between  city-planning  and 
housing — how  it  is  influenced  by  the  location  of  factories ;  by 
the  proper  districting  of  the  city,  and  by  other  building  regula- 
tions; by  the  street  system,  and  especially  by  means  of  tranporta- 
tion;  by  the  proper  distribution  and  development  of  parks,  play- 
grounds, and  neighborhood  facilities  for  recreation.  Many  hous- 
ing schemes  have  been  carried  through  as  if  they  were  isolated 
phenomena,  and  thus  have  failed  of  their  purpose. 

Then  housing  is,  of  course,  closely  related  to  the  building  in- 
terests, materials  of  construction,  and  the  loss  by  depreciation 
and  fire.  It  is  affected  directly  by  policies  with  regard  to  land 
and  taxation,  the  prevailing  practice  as  to  public  health  and  san- 
itation, and  especially  standards  of  living  and  their  dependence 
upon  the  minimum  wage. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  economics — and  I  believe  that  the 
ultimate  solution  of  this  problem  is  to  come  mainly  in  that  direc- 
tion— housing  is  big  business,  and  should  be  handled  as  big  busi- 
ness is  handled.  Building  operations  in  the  United  States 
amount  annually,  it  is  said,  to  four  billion  dollars.  More  than 
half  of  this  great  total  is  spent  in  dwellings;  much  of  it — in  fact, 
from  an  economic  point  of  view,  most  of  it — is  not  well  or  per- 
manently invested.  A  large  percentage  of  the  houses,  especially 
the  cheaper  sorts,  are  poorly  conceived  for  their  purposes,  and  80 
per  cent  of  all  of  them  are  built  of  wood.  A  frame  house  may 
be  a  satisfactory  house,  provided  the  space  between  and  around 
houses  makes  it  reasonably  safe.  Usually  there  is  an  excessive 
depreciation  and  a  fearfully  costly  fire-risk.  This  constitutes  a 
huge  economic  loss,  amounting,  by  the  most  conservative  esti- 
mate, to  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  annually,  which  sum 
must  be  paid,  as  other  carrying  charges  are  paid,  out  of  produc- 
tion, and  finally  must  be  taken  care  of  in  the  wage-earner's  pay- 
roll. 

*  By  John  Nolen.     Address  delivered  at  the  American  Civic  Association 
Annual  Convention,  Washingrton,  D.C.,  December   15,   19 16. 


474  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

Closely  related  to  housing  is  the  question  of  wages  and 
standards  of  living.  Consider,  for  example,  these  four  points 
and  their  relation  to  one  another: 

1.  The  minimum  desirable  house  of  four  or  five  rooms  can- 
not be  provided  in  the  United  States,  even  under  favorable  con- 
ditions, for  less  than  about  $i,8oo  or  $2,000 — that  is,  for  house 
and  lot,  with  street  improvements,  essential  public  utilities  and 
neighborhood  recreation. 

2.  A  house  costing  that  sum  cannot  be  offered  on  the  basis 
of  an  economic  rent  of,  say,  S  per  cent  or  6  per  cent  net,  for  less 
than  $15  a  month. 

3.  Unless  a  wage-earner  with  a  normal  family  of  wife  and 
three  dependent  children  has  an  income  of  $15  a  week  or  $800 
a  year,  he  cannot  afford  to  pay  as  much  as  $15  a  month  for  rent. 

4.  More  than  one  half  of  all  workingmen  earn  less  than  $800 
a  year. 

Thus  we  see  that  no  solution  of  the  housing  problem  in  its 
most  acute  form,  affecting  more  than  50  per  cent  of  all  wage- 
workers,  is  possible  until  a  better  adjustment  can  be  made  in 
the  relation  of  these  four  points.  Here  is  our  choice.  Either  the 
cost  of  the  house  and  lot  must  be  substantially  reduced,  or  the 
standard  of  healthful  living  must  be  lowered,  or  the  wages  of 
the  lowest-paid  workmen  must  be  raised.  The  other  three  pos- 
sible alternatives,  if  they  may  be  so  considered,  are  to  put  the 
wife  and  children  at  work  to  add  to  the  family  income,  to  take 
in  boarders  or  lodgers,  or  to  count  upon  private  philanthropy  or 
the  public  treasury  to  provide  not  a  few  but  great  masses  of 
wage-workers  with  a  house  at  less  than  an  economic  rent. 

What,  then,  is  the  first  step  toward  a  solution  of  this  large 
and  important  problem?  I  believe  it  is  to  recognize  that  the  sub- 
ject is  primarily  one  for  the  right  application  of  broad  economic 
principles.  We  must  in  some  thoroughgoing  way  convert  the 
great  forces,  working  through  regular  channels,  which  now  pro- 
duce bad  housing,  to  produce  good  housing,  and  we  must  do  it 
by  bringing  into  control  and  cooperation  with  them  the  forces 
that  believe  in  good  housing  and  will  gain  from  it,  which  are 
mainly  the  manufacturing  and  business  interests  that  depend 
upon  the  efficient  and  happy  workman.  This  great  change  in 
housing  methods  will  come,  if  it  does  come,  from  the  substitu- 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  475 

tion  for  exploitation  and  excessive  return  of  the  reasonable 
profits  of  business,  from  the  transfer  of  housing  from  the  field 
of  speculation  to  that  corresponding  to  legitimate  manufacturing. 
We  shall  then  proceed  in  very  much  the  same  way  that  the 
manufacturer  proceeds.  We  shall  want  to  know  the  facts  as  to 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  demand.  We  shall  have  definite 
aims  as  to  the  product.  We  shall  use  skill  and  experience  and 
factory  methods.  We  shall  back  the  enterprise  with  adequate 
capital  and  count  upon  a  fair  rate  of  interest. 

The  Girard  estate  in  Philadelphia  is  an  illustration  of  what  1 
have  in  mind.  There  are  now  upon  the  Girard  land,  in  South 
Philadelphia,  481  completed  dwelling  houses,  one  apartment 
house  containing  four  seven-room  housekeeping  apartments  and 
four  stores.  The  rents  for  the  dwelling  houses,  including  light, 
heat  and  hot  water,  range  from  $31  to  $58  a  month.  This  estate 
has  invested  between  two  and  three  million  dollars  in  houses, 
apartments,  stores,  power  plant,  street  mains  and  power-plant 
equipment  for  the  service  of  community  heating  and  lighting. 
There  is  also  a  public  park,  a  free  library,  and  a  modern  public 
school  within  the  territory,  the  park  having  so  far  cost  over 
$60,000.  The  net  income  from  this  enterprise  amounts  to  4  per 
cent  per  annum  net  upon  the  value  of  the  ground  and  5  per  cent 
per  annum  net  upon  the  cost  of  the  buildings.  A  sinking  fund 
has  been  established  to  make  good  any  depreciation  in  the  value 
of  the  improvements,  and  one  half  of  one  per  cent  of  the  cost  of 
the  buildings  and  the  street  improvements  is  set  aside  each  year 
and  invested.  This  deposit  invested  at  5  per  cent  will  repay  the 
entire  cost  of  the  buildings  in  forty-eight  years. 

The  following  statement  of  the  Woodlawn  Company, 
Wilmington,  Delaware,  is  another  example  of  the  financial  basis 
on  which  permanent  housing  can  be  provided  for  the  wage- 
earning  class,  as  a  good  business  investment  yielding  5  per  cent 
interest  net: 

The  houses  are  built  in  solid  rows,  and  the  row  contains  four 
six-room  houses,  four  four-room  houses  and  six  two-family 
houses.  Some  of  the  houses  in  the  district  differ  from  these,  but 
most  of  them  come  within  these  four  types.  In  the  twenty  rows 
which  have  been  built  there  are  270  houses,  with  accommoda- 
tions for  390  families.  It  has  been  somewhat  difficult  to  deter- 
mine the  exact  cost  of  each  type  on  account  of  building  the  sev- 


476  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

eral  types  at  one  time,  with  contracts  usually  covering  two  rows 
of  houses,  but  the  cost,  without  the  land,  is  about  as  follows : 

Six-room   house,   $1,775.00  Rents  for  $16.00. 

Four-room  house,   $1,425.00.      Rents   for   $13.50. 
Two-family   house,  $2,475.00.      First   floor   rents   for   $11.50. 

Second  floor  rents  for  $12.00. 

The  houses  are  built  of  brick  with  slate  and  slag  roofs.  They 
are  all  sewer  connected,  have  city  water  and  gas,  and  some  of 
them  have  electric  wiring.  A  range,  with  water-boiler  attached, 
is  installed  in  each  kitchen.  Bathtubs  and  kitchen  sinks  are 
porcelain  enameled.  Stationary  laundrytubs  are  installed  in  the 
second-floor  flats.  There  are  front  and  back  yards,  and  parts  of 
the  tract  have  been  set  aside  for  park  or  playground  purposes. 
The  first  houses  were  built  in  1903  and  the  last  ones  in  1913. 
They  were  not  built  for  sale,  but  are  to  be  kept  in  the  ownership 
of  the  Woodlawn  Company.  The  six-room  house  is  as  large,  if 
not  larger  than  the  majority  of  wage-earners  want.  There  are 
more  applications  for  four-room  houses  and  flats  than  for  any 
other  kind.  This  development  of  the  Woodlawn  Company  repre- 
sents an  investment  of  $583,000  and  it  has  yielded  an  average  net 
profit  of  about  5  per  cent. 

It  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  show  that  the  larger  part 
of  low-cost  housing  in  the  United  States  is  not  today  satisfac- 
tory in  character.  To  my  mind,  however,  a  peculiar  opportunity 
for  improvement  is  now  presented.  Something  relatively  new 
has  recently  happened  in  this  country.  Employers  of  labor,  not 
a  few  but  many,  are  having  such  great  difficulty  in  getting  and 
holding  employees,  and  they  are  so  impressed  by  the  new  condi- 
tions and  the  cost  and  inconvenience  that  these  conditions  in- 
volve, that  they  are  ready  to  consider  any  practicable  proposition 
that  will  lessen  their  troubles.  It  is  now  easy  to  draw  their  at- 
tention to  the  poor  character  of  much  of  the  housing  of  wage- 
earners,  and  more  especially  to  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  sup- 
ply of  small  houses  of  suitable  types  available  at  rents  which  the 
workingman  can  afford. 

From  a  recent  study  of  conditions  in  four  cities,  I  believe  that 
there  is  today  an  opportunity  for  a  substantial  and  permanent 
advance.  The  four  cities  investigated  were  Waterbury  and 
Bridgeport,  Conn.,  Kenosha,  Wisconsin,  and  Akron,  Ohio.  In 
some  respects  the  problems  are  similar  for  all  these  cities;  in 
other  respects  they  are  local  and  peculiar. 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  477 

In  all  cases  the  local  organization  resolved  that  before  plung- 
ing in  and  building  something  they  would  find  out  by  careful  in- 
vestigation the  extent  and  character  of  the  demand  for  houses, 
and  also  the  experience  of  other  places  in  meeting  somewhat 
parallel  conditions  and  requirements.  The  first  step,  it  seemed 
to  them,  was  a  social  and  economic  survey,  a  diagnosis  that 
would  give  them  confidence  in  the  prescription  for  immediate 
needs,  and,  at  the  same  time,  enable  them  to  adopt  measures  that 
would  be  preventive  in  character  and  apply  to  meeting  the  situa- 
tion in  more  normal  times. 

A  typical  illustration  of  procedure  is  that  of  Waterbury.  The 
investigation  began  by  the  consideration  of  three  main  classes 
of  facts:  (i)  What  are  Waterbury's  housing  needs?  (2)  Where 
can  these  needs  be  met?  (3)  How  can  workingmen's  houses  be 
provided  in  Waterbury?  The  data  when  collected  showed  that 
there  were  from  1,000  to  2,000  families  to  be  provided  for;  that 
35  per  cent  of  these  were  skilled  workingmen  and  65  per  cent 
unskilled ;  that  the  average  weekly  wage  of  the  skilled  was  about 
$20  and  of  the  unskilled  $14;  that  54  per  cent  of  the  total  were 
married  men ;  and  that  the  consensus  of  opinion  with  regard  to 
the  type  or  types  of  houses  was  that  the  one-family  house  should 
be  preferred,  if  the  family  could  afford  it.  If  not,  a  double 
house,  or  two  one-family  houses  built  together,  with  separate 
yards,  and  that  only  when  necessary  the  three-  or  four-tenement 
flat  should  be  built. 

Detailed  investigations  based  upon  the  questionnaire  which 
was  submitted  to  the  manufacturers  were  made  for  each  city. 
The  results  were  summarized  in  each  case  and  made  the  princi- 
pal basis  for  the  recommendations  which  followed. 

The  recommendations  were  somewhat  different  for  the  differ- 
ent cities,  because  of  different  local  conditions.  However,  those 
submitted  to  the  Bridgeport  Chamber  of  Commerce  are  typical, 
and  will  serve  for  illustration.  They  were  seven  in  number,  as 
follows : 

1.  That  the  Bridgeport  Housing  Company  be  formed  at 
once,  with  a  capital  of  at  least  $1,000,000. 

2.  That  someone  with  special  fitness  be  employed  by  the 
Company  to  give  all  his  time  to  the  problem  of  providing  houses 
or  apartments  for  workingmen. 

3.  That  various  tracts  of  land  suitable  in  character  and  loca- 
tion and  low  enough  in  price  for  the  housing  of  workingmen  be 
purchased  by  the  Company. 


478  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

4.  That  the  Housing  Company  undertake  the  early  building 
of  houses  and  apartments  primarily  for  rent. 

5.  That  the  Company  should  provide  especially  the  single- 
family,  detached  dwelling,   for  sale  on  easy  terms. 

6.  That  the  proposed  Housing  Company  should  cooperate 
with  the  family  which  has  acquired  title  to  a  building  lot,  but 
has  not  yet  built  upon  it. 

7.  That  the  Housing  Company  should  facilitate,  so  far  as 
possible,  broad  city-planning  improvements,  especially  those  relat- 
ing to  main  thoroughfares,  parks,  playgrounds,  and  the  districting 
of  the  city. 

The  recommendations  submitted  to  these  four  cities  of  which 
those  for  Bridgeport  are  typical,  have  been  so  framed  as  to  meet 
the  actual  housing  needs  of  workingmen,  on  terms  which  their 
wages  make  possible.  The  proposals  are  not  essentially  new,  and 
not  in  any  sense  radical.  In  fact,  they  follow  conservative  and 
well-tried-out  schemes  of  other  housing  companies.  Virtually 
everything  recommended  has  been  successfully  executed  else- 
where in  this  country  for  the  same  classes  of  workingmen,  with 
the  same  income  or  even  less.  No  one  house  or  method  is  en- 
dorsed as  the  only  one,  although  the  emphasis  is  put  upon  the 
single-family,  self-contained,  detached  house  or  cottage  as  on 
the  whole  most  desirable  when  possible.  In  addition  to  the 
single-family  house,  detached,  the  recommendations  include  an 
endorsement  of  the  single- family  house  in  groups,  also  of  well- 
arranged,  well-lighted  apartments  or  flats.  All  these  types  have 
some  advantages  of  economy  of  land  cost  or  of  land  improve- 
ment cost,  or  of  house  construction,  and  they  take  into  account 
the  fact  that  different  people  have  different  tastes  and  prefer- 
ences as  well  as  different  needs  in  housing,  as  in  other  matters. 
What  is  best  depends  upon  conditions  and  circumstances  and  the 
cost.  These  recommendations  were,  of  course,  only  the  first  step 
in  a  constructive  program.  Every  effort,  however,  was  put  forth 
to  make  it  a  definite  and  practicable  step,  and  to  suggest  logical 
methods  for  following  the  matter  promptly  by  action. 

What  has  actually  been  accomplished  so  far?  Briefly,  the 
following  may  be  said : 

In  Waterbury,  two  large  manufacturing  concerns  have  begun 
operations  and  a  considerable  number  of  new  houses  of  desirable 
types  will  be  completed  and  available  this  spring.     Furthermore, 


EMPLOYMENT   MANAGEMENT  479 

the  attention  of  all  the  manufacturers  of  the  city  has  been  effec- 
tively drawn  to  the  subject,  and  through  the  publication  of  the 
report  in  full  in  the  Waterhury  Republican,  as  a  Sunday  supple- 
ment, public  interest  has  been  aroused  and  public  opinion  formed 
favorable  to  the  energetic  prosecution  of  the  subject.  No  joint 
action,  however,  on  the  part  of  manufacturers  or  of  business  in- 
terests generally,  has  yet  been  secured,  and  it  will  be  interesting 
to  observe  how  much  can  be  accomplished  without  it. 

In  Kenosha,  the  movement  was  begun  by  the  Manufacturers' 
Association  and  had  the  approval  and  support  from  the  start  of 
all  the  business  interests  of  the  city.  Although  the  investigation 
was  not  taken  up  until  May,  the  Kenosha  House  Building  Com- 
pany and  the  Kenosha  Homes  Company  were  successfully  organ- 
ized in  July.  Land  was  purchased  and  building  begun  early  in 
August.  In  September,  Mr.  Alfred  F.  Muller  was  appointed 
Manager  of  the  Homes  Company.  Plans  have  been  made  for  the 
construction  of  at  least  400  single-family  houses.  Some  are  al- 
ready completed  and  occupied.  So  far  the  operation  is  confined 
to  the  detached  cottage  type  of  five  or  six  rooms.  The  price  of 
the  first  houses  on  40-foot  lots,  which  had  already  been  laid  out 
when  purchased,  will  be  from  $2,200  to  $2,600.  It  is  hoped  that 
later  operations  will  make  possible  houses  at  about  $2,000,  on  a 
minimum  of  50-foot  lots. 

A  fuller  statement  about  Kenosha  has  been  made  in  a  paper 
for  the  American  Civic  Association  by  Mr.  Muller.  However,  I 
want  to  say  that  I  know  nothing  better  nor  more  promising  than 
what  has  been  done  in  Kenosha  during  the  last  six  months. 
Some  forces  are  now  being  used  there  for  good  housing  that 
formerly  built  houses  less  good  or  were  relatively  inactive  in 
adding  to  the  supply  of  houses.  These  forces  have  been  stim- 
ulated, directed  and  helped  by  the  effective  organization  of  the 
manufacturing,  business  and  financial  interests  of  the  city.  The 
work  is  on  a  good  business  basis,  yielding  a  good  return.  It 
places  no  dependence  upon  philanthropy  and  charity.  It  is  being 
done  by  the  entire  community  for  the  entire  community.  It  is 
free  from  any  taint  of  paternalism  or  embarrassing  relation  of 
employer  and  employee.  It  is  permanent  and  intends  to  occupy 
the  field  so  long  as  there  is  any  need  for  it.  It  is  of  inestimable 
benefit  to  the  four  parties  most  affected,  namely,  the  employers 
of  labor,  the  people  of  the  city  as  a  whole,  the  legitimate  real- 
estate  operators  and  builders,  and,  above  all,  to  the  wage-earner 


48o  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

himself.  With  slight  modifications  to  meet  local  conditions,  the 
method  of  Kenosha  is,  I  believe,  capable  of  wide  application. 

The  Bridgeport  story  is  just  begun.  After  the  presentation 
of  the  report  entitled  "More  Houses  for  Bridgeport"^  and  the 
careful  consideration  of  the  whole  matter  by  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  the  Housing  Company  was  incorporated,  with  a  cap- 
ital of  a  million  dollars.  A  prospectus  has  been  issued.  A 
capable  manager  has  been  engaged  by  the  Company  to  give  all 
his  time  to  the  problem,  offices  have  been  opened,  land  has  been 
acquired,  and  negotiations  are  now  under  way  for  the  construc- 
tion of  buildings.  Definite  house-plans  have  been  prepared  by 
Schenck  &  Mead,  Architects,  of  New  York  City,  for  the  "Con- 
necticut Development,"  a  five-acre  tract  at  Connecticut  Avenue 
and  Waterman  Street.  They  include  provision  for  86  houses 
accommodating  138  families,  a  liberal  playground,  and  arrange- 
ments for  agreeable  development  and  planting  of  the  entire  prop- 
erty. 

n  successful,  I  believe  that  the  movement  in  Bridgeport  will 
be  particularly  instructive  and  significant.  Its  operations  are 
bound  to  be  large,  because  the  demand  is  so  great,  and  the  condi- 
tions that  the  Company  has  been  organized  to  combat  are  typical 
of  a  modern  industrial  city  in  the  throes  of  very  rapid  growth. 

One  of  the  most  important  city-planning  aspects  of  housing 
that  has  as  its  ideal  "a  good  home  for  every  wage-earner"  is  the 
removal  of  the  factory  and  the  home  to  the  city  out-skirts, 2  thus 
instituting  a  process  of  industrial  and  residential  decentralization. 

The  main  points  for  consideration  in  this  process  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 

1.  What  location  generally  is  the  best  for  factories  in  order 
to  secure   factory  efficiency? 

2.  What  location  for  factories  and  for  homes  for  factory 
employees  is  most  advantageous  for  the  city  as  a  whole? 

3.  Most  fundamental  of  all,  assuming  that  factories  are  lo- 
cated on  the  outskirts  of  a  city,  where  should  the  men  and  women 
employed  in  these  factories  be  encouraged  to  live? 

( I )  The  first  question  is  concerned  with  factory  efficiency. 
So  far  as  location  goes,  the  main  items  that  determine  factory 
efficiency  are  as   follows:    (a)    cheap   land;     (b)    land  in   large 

*  More  Houses  for  Bridgeport:  Report  to  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Bridgeport,    Conn.,   by  John    Nolcn,    City   Planner.      Price   50   cents. 

^  For  fuller  discussion  of  this  topic,  see  Proceedings  of  National  Hous- 
ing  Association,    1912    and    1916. 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  481 

blocks,  unbroken,  and  uninterrupted  by  public  streets;  (r)  ample 
and  convenient  freight  facilities  and  railroad  sidings;  (d)  sue- 
cess  in  obtaining  and  holding  employees  who  are  well  housed  at 
low  rates  in  a  good  environment. 

(2)  The  second  important  question  is,  what  location  for 
factories  and  for  homes  for  employees  in  factories  is  most  ad- 
vantageous for  the  city  as  a  whole?  This  question  may  be 
answered  in  favor  of  the  outskirts,  for  three  reasons:  (a)  the 
city  needs  its  centrally  located  land  for  retail  business  and  com- 
mercial purposes;  (b)  so  far  as  possible  the  city's  streets  should 
be  relieved  from  the  unnecessary  hauling  of  raw  materials  of 
the  factory's  products  to  and  from  the  factory  through  the  built- 
up  city;  (c)  it  is  desirable  that  the  central  city  should  be  free 
from  smoke  and  other  nuisances  often  associated  with  factories. 
It  is  this  point  of  view  largely  that  has  justified  the  establishing 
of  the  outlying  industrial  zone  so  common  in  European  cities. 

(3)  The  most  fundamental  inquiry,  however,  is  the  question 
of  the  location  of  the  homes  of  factory  employees.  The  more 
important  advantages  that  are  assured  to  workmen's  homes  in 
the  outskirts  as  against  homes  in  the  city  are  as  follows:  (a) 
the  opportunity  for  relatively  cheap  land;  (b)  proximity  to  the 
factory,  and  the  incidental  saving  of  time  and  carfare;  (c)  a 
home  in  the  outskirts  will  place  a  workman  close  to  the  country 
and  to  the  city's  outlying  parks. 

The  general  conclusions  from  this  examination  of  the  prob- 
lem of  the  factory  and  the  home  are  five : 

1.  That  new  factories,  in  their  own  interest  and  in  the  inter- 
est of  all  others  concerned,  should  locate  on  the  outskirts  of 
cities,  or  establish  independent  industrial  centers,  whenever  prac- 
ticable. 

2.  That  existing  factories  in  cities  should  be  encouraged,  as 
opportunity  offers,  to  remove  to  more  open  situations. 

3.  That  employers  and  employees  should  cooperate  in  a  social 
and  democratic  way  to  create  a  community  on  the  outskirts  of 
cities  near  factories,  each  doing  their  part  to  make  the  local 
community  healthful,  convenient,  and  attractive. 

4.  That  the  same  cooperation  should  be  directed  toward  se- 
curing also  for  employees  and  their  families,  by  proper  trans- 
portation facilities,  some  of  the  advantages  and  pleasures  of  city 
Ufe. 


482  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

5.  That  the  choice  for  factory  employees  should  not  be 
sharply  drawn  between  the  city  and  the  country.  Both  should  be 
recognized  as  desirable — the  city  for  occasional  inspiration, 
diversion,  and  wider  social  intercourse,  and  the  more  open  coun- 
tryside for  tlie  essentials  of  daily  life. 

One  important  phase  of  the  housing  problem  is  the  employ- 
ment of  methods  of  house  construction  which  will  reduce  the 
cost.  This  would  come  mainly  from  the  adoption  of  the  stand- 
ardizing principle,  which  might  be  applied  successfully  in  con- 
crete, wood,  or  other  materials.  In  the  case  of  concrete,  as 
illustrated  at  Forest  Hills  Gardens,  Long  Island,  N.Y.,  the  note- 
worthy advantages  of  such  a  system  lie  in  the  natural  adaptation 
of  construction  and  design,  shop  manufacture  with  its  possibil- 
ities of  standard,  economic  conditions  of  all  kinds,  the  use  of 
efficient  mechanical  devices,  and  the  adjustment  of  the  building 
units.  The  use  in  construction  of  large  concrete  units  for 
bridges,  warehouses,  power-plants,  hotels,  etc.,  is  no  new  idea. 
It  is  now  proposed  to  extend  it  to  the  low-cost  house  field,  made 
possible  by  standardization  and  wholesale  building  operations. 
This  extension  should  result  in  great  economies  in  labor  and  a 
distinct  reduction  in  the  time  required  for  house-building. 

It  ought  also  to  be  possible  to  effect  substantial  economies, 
and  at  the  same  time  secure  houses  of  good  design  and  sound 
construction,  by  the  wider  application  to  wage-earners'  homes  of 
mill-cut  methods.  There  are  a  number  of  mill-cut  house  con- 
cerns in  the  United  States,  but  they  all  appear  to  be  doing  a 
relatively  small  retail  mail  business,  each  handling  a  considerable 
variety  of  designs.  What  is  most  needed,  it  would  seem,  is  a 
large  wholesale  business,  with  carefully  worked  out,  standardized 
plans,  limited  to  a  few  varieties.  There  is  a  call  especially  for 
four-  and  five-room  houses  with  bath,  the  materials  for  which 
would  cost  not  more  than  $800,  and  the  construction,  according  to 
the  usual  estimate,  about  $800  more,  making  a  total  of  $1,600.  A 
lot  50  feet  by  100  feet,  with  improvements,  would  normally  not 
run  over  $400,  so  that  the  total  cost  for  house  and  lot  would  be 
approximately  $2,000.  I  know  of  few  other  regular  business  op- 
portunities offering  as  good  promise  of  useful  service  and  profit. 

In  conclusion,  may  I  ask,  is  not  this  the  real  problem  of  hous- 
ing: "How  are  we  going  to  invest  25  per  cent  of  the  working- 
men's  wages — a  very  large  sum  of  money — so  as  to  get  the 
maximum  return   for  him,   for  his  employer,   for  the   legitimate 


EMPLOYMENT    MANAGEMENT  483 

building  interests,  and  for  the  community  at  large?  "  The  way 
followed  at  Waterburj',  Kenosha,  Bridgeport,  and  now  being 
taken  up  at  Akron,  is,  I  believe,  at  least  promising  of  good  re- 
sults.   Therefore,  it  is  worthy  of  careful  watching. 

The  other  and  final  question  is,  "Who  is  primarily  responsible 
for  action?"  That,  after  all,  is  our  real  problem,  how  to  get 
started,  and  the  reason  that  the  housing  movement  halts.  I  do 
not  think  that  we  can  prove  by  logic  that  the  employers  are  re- 
sponsible, although  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  it  is  to 
their  own  interests  to  act  promptly  and  on  a  large  scale.  The 
investment  in  housing  should  be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the 
total  investment  necessary  for  carrying  on  business.  An  increase 
of  4  per  cent  or  5  per  cent  in  the  capitalization  of  business  would 
provide  permanently  for  the  housing  of  all  workingmen,  married 
and  single,  men  and  women. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 


487 


DATE 


.PLANT 

REQUISITION  FOR  HELP 


BUILDING    NO. 


FLOOR    NO. 


DEPT.    NO. 


SHIFT 


NUMBER 
WANTED 

KIND     OF 

MEN     WANTED 

DATE 
WANTED 

RATE 
APPROXIMATE 

1 

STATE     ABOVE,      NATURE 
OF    WORK    TO    BE    DONE 

Asst.    Foreman 

Foreman 

Approved Supt. 

Approved Works  Mgr. 

MAKE      OU 
REQUISITK 
KIND   OF    I 

T       SEPARATE 
)N    FOR    EACH 
lEN    WANTED 

(Face) 


(Over) 


NAMES    OF    MEN    SENT    FOR 

DATE 

REMARKS 





(Reverse) 
Requisition    for   Labor    (4"  x  6") 


488 


APPENDIX 


No.. 


APPLICATION    FOR    POSITION 


What  position  do  you  apply  for?. 

Name    

Street     

Town    

Nationality     

When  were  you  last  vaccinated?.. 


Do  you  live  with  parents? 


What  Dep't?    

Age     

Married  or  Single?. 
Language    Spoken.. 


Are  you  boarding? 


.191. 


Are  you  housekeeping? 


Last    Employer's    Name 

Address Kind  of  business . . . . 

How  long  were  you  there? Salary  received. 

Why  did  you   leave  ? 

When   did  you   leave? 

Have  you  ever  been  employed  here  before? 


Would  you  consider  it  your  duty  to  report,  in  writing  or  otherwise,  any 
act  or  conduct  of  your  fellow  employee  that  you  consider  against  the 
interests    of   our    business  ? 

It  is  understood  that  I  become  a  member  of &  Co.'s  Employee's 

Mutual  Aid  Association  as  soon  as  I  enter  the  employment. 

I  agree,  if  engaged,  to  conform  to  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  Com- 
pany.    My  engagement  can  be  terminated  at  the  option  of 

I   being  likewise  at  liberty  to  terminate.     Absence  from   duty  for  one 
weelc   without   notice   terminates   my   engagement. 


(Do  not  write  below) 

Dep't 

Date 

Engaged  by 

Salary 


(Applicant  sign  here) 


Form  Used  by  Department  Store  Employing  2500.  (Over) 


APPENDIX 


489 


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492  APPENDIX 

Name Address 

Age Race Trade. 

Eyesight     Urinal    Diseases . 

Hearing    Varicose    Veins.. 

Mouth    Genitals    

Teeth     Hernia    

Heart    Vaccination    . . . . 

Lungs    Illness    


Blood    Pressure 
Remarks     


Examiner 


Accepted Rejected 

Date Signed 

PHYSICAL    EXAMINATION    CARD 

U.    S,    SHIPPING    BOARD    EMERGENCY    FEET    CORPORATION 

Form  210.— E.  F.  C.  (Size  4"  x  6"  Yellow) 


FOREMAN'S   RATING 

Mr Foreman  Date 

Dep't. 

The  bearer applies   for 

employment    as with experience. 

Please  interview  him  and  note  result  below  with  any  recommendation 
you  may  wish  to  make. 


.Employment    Department 


Foreman's  rating  of  applicant 

Recommended  for    

Rate   recommended    

Foreman 

Return  in  sealed  envelope  to 
Employment  Department.  Dept. 

U.   S.   SHIPPING  BOARD  EMERGENCY  FLEET  CORPORATION 

Form   208.— E.   F.  C.  (Size  4*  ^  6") 

This  slip,  printed  on  colored  paper,  is  sent  with  the  applicant  to  the  fore- 
man of  the  shop  or  department  wherein  he  is  to  be  placed. 


APPENDIX 


493 


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494  APPENDIX 


To... 

Regar 
Dept. 

WE 

DING. . . . 

BELIEVE 

FOR 

THE 

Occupation 

BEST     interest 

OF 

EMPLOYER 

AND 

EMPLOYE, 

THAT 

IT    WOULD 

BE 

WISE 

TO 

CHANGE   THE 

WORK 

OF 

THE 

ABOVE   NAMED,        | 

AS    WE 

FIND 

R.T.W. 

540 

... 

... 

... 





...M.  D. 

(Size   3"X5") 

Used  by   the   Medical   Examiner   in   notifying   the   Employment   Department 

that    an    employe    is    physically    unsuited   to    his    work. 


Form   872-B. 
Name 

REQUEST   FOR   TRANSFER 
Date-    . 

8- 

i8-5  M. 

Dept 

Length   of   S 
I   hereby 
From  .  . .  . 

...No 



make   application   to 

be   transferred 
To 

approved: 

signed: 

approved: 

Old  Foreman 

approved: 

New  Foreman 

Application 

Employment 

Adj.   Supvr. 

for  transfer  may  be 
with    the 

made  only  after  THIRTY 
..CORPORATION. 

DAYS 

(Size   3"x5") 
This  form  is  used  by  foremen  where  an  employe  desires  to  be  transferred. 


APPENDIX 


495 


FOR  TIME  DEPABTMBNT 

TRANSFER    CARD 


NAME  OF    EMPLOYEE 

(  TCMPeflARIl.V 
TRANSFCRRCO- 

CANCf  L  THE  TERM  WHtCH  DOES  MOT  AmT 

PROM 

XO 

TO  TAKE   EFFBCT 

DEPT                                                   NUMBER 

DEPT 

PRESENT   POSITION 

NEW   POSITION 

POSITION                                                                                                                               RATC 

PER   HOUR 

POSITION 

RATC 
PER   HOUR 

REMARKS 

(signed) 

(stGNEO) 

OEPT    F0R5MAN(PR«»EMt) 

THIS   roRM   SHOULD   SE    RENDERCO   IN    TRIPUtCATC. 
THt   ORIGINAL    MUST   SE    PORWABDEO   TO   THE   TIME    DEPT, 
THE   DUPLICATE    l»   FOHWAHOEO   TO   THE    RECEIVING    OEPT. 
THE    TRIPLICATE    9HOUIC    BE    RCTAINEO   BV   THE    ISSUING   DEPT 

(approved) 

OEPT    FOREMAN  (HICCIVINO) 

(Size   4    X  6") 

This  f'^rm  is  used  by  several  large  corporations.  It  is  rendered  in 
triplicate,  each  form  of  a  different  color.  The  original  goes  to  the  time 
department,  the  duplicate  to  the  receiving  department,  and  the  third  is 
retained  by  the  issuing  department. 


ACCIDENT  REPORT 

Name Check   No Dept 

Time   of   Injury Time   reported 

Place  of  Accident Date  last  inspection. 

Cause     


Nature    of    Injury. 


Treated    by 

Period  disabled. 
Compensation  . . 
Witnesses    


Foreman 


(Size  4"  X  6") 
Form   used   in   the   Medical   Clinic   of   a  manufacturing   concern    employing 


about   3000  men. 


496 


APPENDIX 


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APPENDIX  497 

THE  YOUNGSTOWN   SHEET   &   TUBE   CO. 
Medical  Department 

Check   No Name 

Department Age Date 

General    appearance 

Height ft in.     Weight Color  hair 

Eyes     

Ears    

Nose     

Mouth    

Neck    

Heart    

Lungs    

Abdomen     

Arteries     

Extremities     

Ing.  region    

Spine    

Skin    

Infectious  disease   


Form   of   Physical   Examination   Record. 


ERIE  FORGE  &  STEEL  CO. — Medical  Department. 


Name Check   No Address 

Date  of  injury Age Department. 

Nature  of  injury 


Date  discharged  by  doctor Date  able  to  work. 


Date. 


Treatment   and   progress   of  case. 


Combined   Surgical  Case  Record  and   Redressing  Record. 


498 


APPENDIX 


TERMINATION    NOTICE 


Settlement  Cuerk: 

Pay  employee  named  below,  settlement  in  full  for 

EARNINGS  DUE 

AMt 

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MONTH 

DAY 

VKAII- 

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(Size  4"  X  6",  Blue) 


TERMINATION  NOTICE 


Settlement  Clerks    Pay  employe  named  below,  settlement  in  full 

for   earnings  due. 


NAME 

DEPT. 

NO. 

MONTH 

DAY 

YEAR 

WHY    TERMINATED 

FOREM 

AN     OF 

DEPT. 

RECORD 


RECOMMENDATION 


DUPLICATE TO    BE    SENT    AT    ONCE    IN    SEALED    ENVELOPE    TO 

EMPLOYMENT    OFFICE. 

(Size  4"  X  6"  White) 
A  duplicate  of  this  form  on  yellow  stock  is  retained  for  the  foreman's 
record. 


APPENDIX  499 


CLEARANCE  SLIP 


Date. 


Name No 

O.  K.  by As  to  tool  clearance 

O.  K.  by As  to  brass  checks,  badge,  buttons  and  keys 

Received  from  the  Lake  Torpedo  Boat  Co.  $ as  wages  in  full. 

Signed 

Form  L.T.   147 

(Size   3"x5") 

Form  to  record  clearance  of  responsibility  for  tools  and  other  company 
property  at  time  of  termination  of  employment,  and  receipt  for  wages. 


500 


APPENDIX 


SURVEY  OF  NATIONALITIES 


DEPAImieNT 


APPENDIX 


SOI 


LABOR  STABILITY  REPORT 
Plajjt  Summary 

Month 19 ... . 

Name   of   Firm totals 

Total  No.  of  Employees  ist  of  month — Male Female 

Total  No.  of  Employees  end  of  month — Male Female 

Net  Increase  or  Decrease or % 

Labor  Turnover        % 

Turnover   previous   month %         


Entrances 

I — Employed    . 
2 — Re-employed 

Transfers 

I — Promoted     . 
2 — ^Another  trial 


Male        Female 


Per  cent 


Total, 


Total, 


Terminations 

I — Resignations    (voluntary) 

2 — Discharges 

3 — Lay-offs 

4 — Unavoidable     .... 


Total, 


Per  cent 


EXPLANATION 

Labor  Turnover  is  the  condition  in  industry  represented  by  the  engage- 
ment, loss,  and  replacement  of  workers.  It  represents  the  leakage  or  waste 
of  man  power  and  is  a  fair  index  of  the  efficiency  of  management  methods 
and  conditions  of  employment. 

FORMULA    FOR    COMPUTING    LABOR    TURNOVER 

Tr^Turnover;  A=: Average*  rfumber  actually  at  work  daily  for  period 
computed;  L=iLoss;  M=Transfers  from  department  to  department; 
U=Unavoidable  losses   (death,  disease,  etc.) 


For   the   Plant 


-(M+U) 


For  a  Department  tL — U 


-=:T 


The  following  formula  is  recom- 
mended by  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor 
and  National  Employment  Man- 
agers' Conference,  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
1918. 

L 
=T 


When    Increasing    the    Forced  Subtract    the    increase    from    the    number 
hired  during  the  period.    This  will  give  the  amount  of  loss  or  value  of 
L.      Then   use   the   foimula. 
When    Decreasing   the   FoRCE=Add   the   number   represented   by   the   de- 
crease  to   the   number   hired   during   the   period   to   obtain   the   number 
leaving  or  value   of  L.     Then  use  the  formula. 


*The  average  should  be  obtained  by  adding  the  daily  totals  of  workers  em- 
ployed and  dividing  the  result  by  the  number  of  working  days;  for  a 
weekly  average,  by  taking  the  daily  totals  of  workers  employed  and 
dividing  by  the  number  of  weeks.  To  obtain  the  annual  rate  of  turn- 
over multiply  the  monthly  figure  by  12,  or  the  weekly  figure  by  52. 

{Transfers  should  be  included  in  the  value  of  L.  when  computing  turnover 
for  a  department. 

[OYcr] 


502 


APPENDIX 


If  it  is  desired  to  obtain  a  daily  turnover  record  for  a 
particular  department  this  sheet  can  be  used  to  advantage 
after  writing  in  the  dates  of  the  month  in  the  column 
marked  "Department." 

It  is  suggested  that  all  totals  be  written  in  red  ink  so 
as  to   make   results   stand   out   clearly. 

ENTRANCES 


LABOR    TURNOVER 


NEW 

RE- 

Summary of 

DEPT. 

VlfORKERS 

EMPLOYED 

TRANSFERS 

TerminatloM. 

RESIGNATIONS 

1        2        3 

4       S       6 

789 

10      II      12 

13 

14       15       16       17    18   19  20     21 

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Note:    Each  Dept.  should  be  subdivided  so  that  each 
division  may  be  accorded  its   net  gain   or  loss. 


All  rights  reserved  by 
Daniel  Bloomfield, 


APPENDIX 


503 


BY    DEPARTMENTS 


TERMINATIONS 


.19. 


DISCHARGES 

LAID    OFF 

UNAVOIDABLE 

TRANSFERS 

TOTALS 

22 

23 

24     25     26     27     28     29 

30       31       32 

33     34     35 

36     37     38 

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6  Beacon  St.,  Boston.  Mass. 


Copies  of  this  blank  may  be  obtained  from  the  author. 
[Over] 


504 


APPENDIX 


TERMINATIONS 
TURNOVER  ACCORDING  TO  PERIOD   OF   SERVICE 


Employed  2  weeks  or  less 

2 —  4  weeks 
I —  3  months 

3 —  6  months 
6 —  9  months 
9 — 12  months 

1 —  2  years 

2 —  3  years 

3 —  4  years 

4 —  5  years 
5 — 10  years 

10 — IS  years 
Over  IS  years 


TOTAL 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

%  of  terminations 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 

%  " 


TURNOVER  BY  NATIONALITIES 

TOTAL 


American 

%    " 

English       .... 

%    " 

Italian        .... 

.'. %    " 

Russian      .... 

%    " 

Polish         .... 

%    '• 

French       .... 

•   ••••••• 

%    " 

German      .... 

%    " 

Austrian    .... 

•  •••••••  yO 

%   " 

%   " 

%   " 

%   " 

EUPLOYMENT   MANAGES 


INDEX 


Absentees,    i8i-a,    437-41 

Adler,    Dr.    Herman    M.,    103-4 

Alexander,  Magnus  W.,  4ii  42,  85, 

259-76 
Americanization    work,    430-3 
Application    blanks,    38,    Appendix 
Application   file,    169-71,   405-6 
Applicants,  Analysis  of,  97i  416 
Associations    of     employment     man- 
agers.      See     Employment     man- 
agers associations 

Bloomfield,   Daniel,   251-3,   276-7 

Bloomfield,  Meyer,  1-2,  33-8,  43. 
113-8,    301-9 

Boston  Employment  managers  as- 
sociation, 2,  3,  33,  46,  114-15 

Bowie,  G.  W.,  31S-27 

Brasher,    Philip,    84-9 

Bridgeport  Housing  Company,  477- 
8,   480 

Cafeterias.    See    Lunchrooms 

Campbell,    R.    W.,    468-73 

Cannon,   Walter  B.,    10,  21-32 

Cashmore,   Hilda,    137-47 

Channing,  J.  Parke,   394-6 

Chapel,   The,      346,   349,   387 

Charts,    192,    194,    238-41,   Appendix 

Children  in  industry,  93,  99 

Cleveland,   Treadwell,  Jr.,   52-66 

Clothier,   Robert  C,  47,    158-6^ 

Clubhouses,    418-19,    427-8 

Coburn,   F.    G.,    310-5 

Coho,    H.    B.,    199-206 

Colvin,    F.    H.,    428-34 

Complaints,    412-13 

Cooperative  management,   390-4 

Cooperative    stores,    80-1 

Co-operation  between  employers 
and  employees,  394-6 

Cost  of  labor  turnover.  See  labor 
turnover,   cost   of 

Courses  in  employment  manage- 
ment, 30,  IIS,  117,  136-7 

Dewey,  John,   10 
Dilution,    353-4 

Discharge,    26,    154-5,    165-6,    175-6, 
247-50.    271-2,    375,    403-4,    419-20 
Discipline,   378-9 
District    councils,    332,    339 
Douglas,    Paul   H.,   89-99 

Economic    system,    7-9 
Edison,   Thomas  A.,   301-2 
Education.     See     Training    of    em- 
ployees 


Educational  requirements  for  work- 
ers,  225-6 

Eliot,    Charles    W.,    390-4 

Employees'  associations,   79-82 

Employees'  committees,  48,  106; 
See  also   Works  committees 

Employees,  Handling  of,  25-7,  33-4, 
35-6,  67-84,  302-6,  317-20;  Re- 
taining of,  51-2,  273-6;  Selection 
of,  77-8,  159,  171-3.  222-37,  244- 
7;    Promotion    of,    237-43 

Employers    duties,    28-30 

Employment    department,    233;    At- 
titude of  general  manager  to  the, 
29-30;   Functions  of,  35,  36-8,  43 
52,    86-7,    97-8,    150-66,    183,    193 
196-8;        Organization      of,      168 
Scope,    169-83,   184-93,   194 

Employment  manager,  Function* 
120-5,  128-31;  Qualifications,  87, 
125-8,  113-14.  131-4.  185-6,  200-1; 
Responsibilities,  167-8;  Training, 
134-7 

Employment  managers  associations, 
3-4.  33-4.  46-7,  64-5,  lis;  ■See  also 
Boston  Employment  managers' 
association 

Employment  management,  38,  114-S, 
118-9;  Employer's  attitude  to- 
ward,  49 

Employment  management  courses. 
See  Courses  in  employment  man- 
agement 

Erskine,  Lilian,  52-66 

Filene's,  Wm.  &  Sons  Co.,  48 
Firestone  Tire  &  rubber  co.,  418-28 
Firing.      See    Discharge 
First  National  council  on  industrial 

diseases,   294 
Fish,   E.   H.,    253-6 
Fisher,   Boyd,  48,  287-92,  397-418 
Fitch,   John   A.,   39-49.   435-41 
Ford,   Henry,  402 
Foremen,  43;   Appointment  of,   376- 

7;  Duties,  60-1,  76-7,  99-101,   123, 

301-29 
Forman,   B.   J.,    196-8 
Forms,   220-1,  Appendix 
Fouhy,    Charles   E.,   281-7 
Freudian  school,   7 

Gilbreth,  Frank  B.,  and  Lillian  M., 

237-43 
Girard   estate,    Philadelphia,    475 
Godfather  movement,  242 
Gould,  E.  C,   193-6 
Grieves,  W.  A.,  42,  67-84 


5o6 


INDEX 


Hackett,  J.   D.,   49-52 

Health  of  employees,   161,  423 

Hiring,    171,    205,   408-9 

Hobart,   M.   C,  99-104 

Hopkins,   Ernest  M.,  47,    149-58 

Hours  of  labor,    156-7,  411,  421-2 

Housing  of  employees,  423-4,  429- 
30,   473-83 

Hubbell,  N.   D.,   166-83 

Human  element  in  industry,  7-8, 
25-8,  87-9 

Humanizing  the  management  of  in- 
dustry,   28-31 

Hunter,  J.  V.,   327-9 

Industrial    committees,    350-1 

Industrial   councils,    331-45 

Industrial    relations,    336-45 

I.   VV.  W.,  6 

Instincts,    10-23 

Insurance,    195-6 

International     Harvester     Company, 

US.   307 
Interviewer,    192 
Introducing    new    employees,     173-4. 

408-9 

James,    William,    13,    15 

Job,   Standardization   of  the,    152-3 

Jones,   Edward   D.,    118-28 

Kenosha,  Wis.,  Housing  situation 
in,  479-80 

Labor  recruiting,  36,   ii6-8 

Labor  supply,  37 i  Sources  of,  199- 
206 

Labor  turnover,  34,  39-40 ;  84-93, 
154;  Computing  of,  251-7;  Cost, 
40-2,  49-50,  54-66,  68-71,  95-7. 
100-3,  106-7,  259-92;  Methods  of 
reduction  of,  163-5,  397-4i8,  428- 
34;  Remedy  for,  50,  94-5,  97-9; 
Reports   of,    180 

Labor   unrest,   23-5 

Laying  off.  Effect  on  workers,  64 

Leaving,  Notice  of,  171-2;  Reasons 
for,  44-6,  50-2,  loo-i,  103-4,  176, 
435-6 

Lewisohn,    Sam.   A.,   28-31 

Loyalty,   320-1 

Lunch  rooms,  80,  89,   161,  458-68 

M'Dougall,    William,    8-9,    13 
Medical   work,    162,    195,   410,  449-58 
Minister   of   Labour,   Letter   to   Em- 
ployers    associations     and     Trade 
unions,    331-5 
Motives  in  economic  life,  5-25 

Nolen,  John,  473-83 

Organization   in   industry,    34,    1046 


Packard  Motor  Car  Co.,  397-8 

Parker,  Carleton  H.,  5-25 

Payment,  Methods  of,  354-5 

Pension  systems,   161,  414-15 

Person,  Harlow  S.,    128-37 

Personal  relations  between  execu- 
tives and  employees,   1 10-11 

Personnel  department.  See  Em- 
ployment department 

Physical  examination  of  workers, 
225,  293-9,  409-10,  452-4 

Places  of  employment.  Improvement 
of,   51,    109-10,    160-1,  422 

President's     Mediation     commission, 

31 
Production,    Effect    of    environment 

on,   27,   Cost  of  lowered,   62-3 
Profit   sharing,    98-9,    424-6 
Promotions,    98,    108-9,    178,    237-43 
Psychology,  5-25,    103-4 
Punctuality,  439 
Purdy,   William  B.,  277-8 

Radford,  G.  S.,  104-11 
Rates   of  pay,    177-8 
Rating  scale,   213-22 
Reconstruction     committee,      report, 

336-45 
Records,   38,    178-80 
Reports,    190 
Rest  periods,   411-12 
Restaurants.      See   Lunch   rooms 
Reasons   for   leaving.     See    Leaving, 

reasons   for 
Rewards,    439-41 
Rheinfeldt.   J.    T.    B.,    397,    398 
Roberts,   George   H.,   33i-5 

Safety,    195,    326-7,   468-72 
Safety  organizations,  468-72 
Salesmen,      Scientific     selection     of, 

222-37 
Sawyer,  Dr.  Alfred  William,  278-81 
Schereschewsky,   J.   W.,   293-9 
Scott,   Walter   Dill,  222-37 
Seasonal    element    in    industry,    96, 

99.    154 

Seattle,    5,   6 

Selection  of  workers.  See  Em- 
ployees, Selection  of 

Shop  committees,   348,  350 

Shop  stewards,  346-8,  352-3,  381. 
38s 

Sinsheimer,   A.,   418-28 

Social   union,   351 

Solvay   companies,    400 

Strikes,    5-6 

Suggestion  systems,  413 

Tarbell,   Ida  M.,   402 
Tests.     See  Trade  tests 
Thorndike,  E.  L.,  9,   13,   16,  35 
Three-position    plan    of    promotion, 
178,    237-43 


INDEX 


507 


Timekeeping,    355 

Trade  tests,  207-13,  225-37 

Trade     unions,     346-9.     372-3.     375. 

376,    379-85 
Training    of    employees,    60-1,    72-6, 

159-60,   180-1,  274-5,  406 
Transfers,   109,   176 
Turnover.      See   Labor  turnover 


Vacations,   412 

Veblen,    Thorstein    B.,    8,    9-10,    15, 

19,    20 
Victimization   of  workers,   384 
Vocation  bureau,  Boston,   33,  46 

Wages,  47-8,  88,  96,  103,  107,  124, 
201,   394-S.   406-7 

Waterbury,  Conn.,  Housing  situa- 
tion in,  477,  478-9 


Webb,    Sidney,    244-50 

Welfare  committee,   351 

Welfare  work,  79-82,  83-4,  137-47. 
160,  195,  355-6,  418-28,  441-83; 
Administration  of,  445-6;  Possi- 
bilities of  as  a  profession  for  wo- 
men,   144-6 

Welfare  worker,  138-9,  140-1,  143- 
4,    447-8 

Whitley  report,   331-45.  396 

Whitney,   A.   L.,   441-68 

Williams,  John  M.,  42,  44-6 

Woodlawn  company,  Wilmington, 
Del.,    475-6 

Works  committees,  332,  339,  345- 
90;  Constitution,  357-62;  Func- 
tions, 369-79;  Meetings,  362-4, 
365-6;  Procedure,  366-7;  Rela- 
tions with  trade  unions,  379-85; 
Secretary,  364-S 


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